Solidarity
by Nyakai
Summary: Sequel to Influence. Raven held her head. What was going on? Where were all these emotions coming from? Her new meditation was supposed to repress these feelings better, but they were getting stronger. Especially around Slade.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** If Teen Titans was really mine, it wouldn't have ended with just 5 seasons.

**a.n. **If you didn't read Influence, here's the breakdown: Raven joined Slade and X, Speedy, Hotspot, and Aqualad tried to stop them.

I'm gonna be bringing in characters from the comic books, but seeing as how I've never read the comic books, I hope you don't mind if they're not at all like they are in the books. But I'll try!

**Prologue**

Raven floated in front of the large attic windows, silhouetted against the early morning light. Her long cape lightly glided back and forth, even though there was no draft. Her legs were crossed, her arms were spread out, and her expression was calm.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos..." she chanted to the windows. It was only in the early morning hours that she found it easiest to meditate. When the headquarters was devoid of drones working and noisy machinery. With it was just peace and quiet, and–

"What do you think you're doing?" a voice barked from behind. Raven turned abruptly, stifling a gasp, and found Slade standing not too far from her, arms folded across his chest. He was sending her a stern look... sterner than usual.

"I was... I was meditating," Raven said slowly, a quizzical expression adorning her face. Slade always encouraged her to meditate, but now the girl felt like she was in trouble for some reason.

"And what about the meditation _I_ taught you? I thought I told you not to use anything else." He stalked forward suddenly and Raven dropped to her feet.

"I _have_ been using yours," she quickly defended. "But I just wanted to meditate like I used to. Just once." There was a hint of a tone clinging to her words; a tone she used when she felt threatened.

"That old chant of yours that got you nowhere? Do you want to lose all your progress? After this whole time?" he chided.

"No," said Raven with the faintest pout. "But I also don't want to lose my connection to my home." She pulled her hood over her head as Slade stepped around her and looked out the vast windows. The rising sun made the buildings around them gleam, most notably Titans Tower, sitting amongst the sparkling bay.

"Your home?" he repeated. "The home that's long gone... that you can never get back to?" Slade glanced at her over his shoulder. "Stop living in the past, Raven. Azarath is no longer part of your life. Move on before you get too nostalgic."

"Right, since you hate all things sentimental," the girl muttered. She put her hands on her hips and stared at Slade's transparent reflection. "Just because you seemed to have a dysfunctional home life, why do I have to suffer?"

"That's not the point," Slade replied, his voice echoing off the wall of windows. "The point is you really got a handle on your powers with your new meditation and I don't want to see you screw that up." He turned to stare at her with a gaze to end the argument. "Understand?"

"Fine," huffed Raven. With a defeated scowl, she headed for the kitchen area. "I need some tea."


	2. A new teammate

**Chapter 1**

There was a surprising amount of activity in Titans Tower for so early in the morning. Everyone but Beast Boy had been woken by an intruder alert, but found it to be one of their own– an honorary Titan.

The silver-skinned Argent stood in the middle of the tower living room, admiring the furnishings. Starfire offered her all kinds of breakfast food and beverages– mustard among the options listed– while Cyborg helped himself to the fridge. Robin was at the computer cueing up video streams. Finally, footage of Cheshire entering a building at night and tearing through files appeared on the screen. The couple of minutes of recording kept repeating when it ran to the end of the segment.

"That's her," Argent nodded, her voice ringing with a British accent. "I've followed her here all the way from Down Under. That was her last raid in Sydney."

"Where is this 'Down Under?'" Starfire questioned. "Down and under _what_?"

"She means Australia, Star," Cyborg said as he headed for the couch with arms loaded with food. The Tamaranian smiled, the twinkle of comprehension in her eyes.

"Oh! The Cheshire has been chased from down and under Australia." A short silence followed, only broken when the main doors to the room slid open. X walked in, passing right by Argent without so much as a glance, and headed for the computer.

"Hey, kid. You wouldn't mind if I used this for a sec, wouldja? You don't look very busy and I'm kinda in a hurry."

One of Robin's masked eyes twitched. X had become a far too frequent sight around the tower, and the team wondered if he really wasn't living there. So far they had not found a room he had claimed, but they were still looking. Cyborg changed the tower codes a couple of times, but X still got in. By now the Titans had stopped trying to avoid him and just let him come and go as he pleased. But he was still annoying.

"Actually, we _are_ busy. And we have a real lead, here." Robin said. Immediately he turned to Argent to ignore any comment he knew would spout from X. "So what was Cheshire after?"

Argent gave a helpless sigh. "I don't know. That was the third building she broke into and all she did was go through people's records. She's looking for someone. I have no idea who she's looking for or why, but I pity the poor soul if she finds him."

"As long as she remains in the city, we'll help you, Argent," Robin said, nodding authoritatively. Starfire clapped.

"Yes! You can be on our team for the time being!"

"That sounds brilliant," smiled the silver-skinned girl, "but what about a room for that time being? I am a little tired after that chase..." At once Starfire grabbed Argent's hand and led her out of the room, describing all the guest rooms they had and how not to pick one near Beast Boy's.

"Well," X grunted once the girls were gone, "now onto important matters." He brought a small disc out of his belt and was about to insert it into the computer when Robin interrupted.

"If this has anything to do with Raven, you're wasting your time."

X glanced up and he stared at the Titans wide-eyed. The hand holding the disc remained motionless, mere centimeters from the insert slot. "Wasting time?"

Cyborg, still lounging on the couch, swallowed a whole pop tart before saying, "Y'know, man, she _has_ been gone a long time without contacting us at all."

"How long?" demanded the thief. Cyborg pressed several buttons on his right arm and a small timer appeared. "Seven months, five days, sixteen hours, one minute and thirty-four seconds. Thirty-five seconds. Thirty-six seconds. Thir-"

"All right!" X interrupted. He stuffed the disc back into his belt, glaring at the team leader. "So you're just giving up? After all that crap about saving Raven and bringing her home safe and not resting until she's a member again– did you suddenly forget that? Or was it all a lie just to satisfy Starfizzle?"

Again, Robin's eye twitched. "Look, Raven hasn't contacted us in... forever. She chose to go back to Slade. I know that nothing we say can make her return if she doesn't want to. But I _do_ want her to come back. Just as much as you."

"We'll see," muttered X, glaring, before heading for the door.

.

Shouts and war cries echoed off the surrounding rocks and trees. The _whumps_ of attacking fists or feet were a bit more muffled as they hit armor and skin. Somewhere in between their echoes was the sound of gasping for breath.

Raven and Slade were training in their daily session, this time hand-to-hand. They had found a spot much father in from where the city park fused with the forest. It had been their outdoor training place for several weeks, and the land clearly bore their marking. Surrounding trees were limbless and rocks and hard round had received gashes.

Slade's arm came down fast, aimed for Raven, but hit and broke a thick branch. The girl had dived under his arm and was now behind him. She sent a kick right into the small of his back, making him fall into the newly-maimed tree.

Slade chuckled. "Your moves are becoming repetitive, my dear." He pushed himself away from the tree trunk and faced her. One of Raven's hands darted across her brow, removing yet another collection of droplets, but otherwise she tried not to show fatigue.

"Really? Then why haven't you predicted my blows? Tired, old man?" smirked the girl.

Slade's head jerked from side to side and Raven could hear several cracking noises. She flinched. Suddenly his hands darted forward, grabbed Raven's forearms, and flung the girl over his head, letting her land hard a couple of yards away.

"Old, am I?" he said, leaning against the maimed tree trunk. "Then how is it you're only beginning to keep up with me?" He folded his arms across his chest and watched as she climbed to her feet.

Raven hated to admit it, but he was right. In these kinds of fights where her powers were prohibited, Slade usually won. He was starting to teach Raven some martial art forms which she faithfully tried out in these practice sessions. But even with extra moves, Slade knew many more and Raven often ended up on the ground.

The girl dusted off a sleeve and threw her cape over her shoulder. "Well," she said in her normal monotone voice, "not that this hasn't been fun or anything, but I think the hour's up."

"Giving up so quickly?" Slade questioned, pushing himself away from the tree with his shoulder. He watched Raven, unblinking, and the girl could sense his haughty smile.

"You should know better than me," mumbled Raven. She once more wiped her brow before pulling her hood over her head.

Slade clasped his hands behind his back and leaned forward as if he hadn't heard her right. "I'm sorry, what was that?" His tone was the one he normally used when pulling rank and reminding the girl who was really in charge.

"I... just said... you'd know better than me," Raven said. Slade approached slowly.

"And what exactly do you mean by that?"

Raven had found out long ago that, much to her surprise, Slade had a sense of humor. She had even heard a couple of jokes, which were much funnier than anything Beast Boy had ever cracked. However, she had also found out that Slade wouldn't tolerate any type of "mutinous talk," as he called it, even if it was in jest. And Slade was always creative in thinking up punishments for unacceptable behavior.

"I mean just... you used to give up a lot. When you fought the Titans, you ran and hid the instant a battle wasn't going your way. I don't remember one time where you stood and fought," Raven said carefully in a tone far from criticizing.

"Easy for you to say, my dear, when you were on a team of five."

"Still, we were 'just kids,' like you kept telling me," she replied, a bit bolder. Raven folded her arms across her chest and her cape slipped over her shoulders.

"And like most kids, you all were annoying, meddlesome, and undisciplined," said Slade quickly. He was now standing nearly an arm's length away from the girl and already towering above her. Raven just stared blandly from under her hood.

"At least we didn't run. Even when the odds were against us."

Before Slade had a chance to reply, the girl created a giant shadow raven that carried them back to their attic base.

.

Beast Boy hurried, rubbing an eye. He noticed his three teammates standing in front of the computer. studying maps of the city.

"Dudes," he said, hopping onto the back of the semicircular couch. "I just saw Raven walking down a hall!"

The three Titans looked at him, undisturbed. Beast Boy used to make claims like that twice a month or more, depending upon what food he had eaten for dinner the previous night.

"The last time you saw Rae, it was a curtain in Starfire's room," Cyborg replied indifferently. Starfire nodded.

"Yes, and I still do not know why you were in my room to begin with," said the alien girl, sending a half-demanding, half-inquisitive stare toward Beast Boy.

The changeling rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah... let's not get into that again. But this time, I'm serious! I saw Raven's _arm_!" The Titans stared on.

"And... where was the rest of her body?" Robin questioned with a raised brow.

"Around the corner already. I just saw her creepy gray skin for a second... why didn't anyone tell me she was back?" accused the changeling.

"Are you sure it was not Argent whom you saw?" Starfire asked, to which Beast Boy just blinked.

"Ar... gent?"

"Yeah, we've got a new face around the tower. At least for awhile," Cyborg said with a grin. "She's a Titan from overseas and she'll be bunking here for now."

"Oh," sighed Beast Boy, ears drooping.

.

Argent wandered aimlessly down almost identical-looking corridors. She had given up the idea of finding the living room long ago, and instead of admitting she was lost, she decided to start seeing what was behind random doors.

The silver-skinned girl turned down another hallway, skipped a couple of rooms and opened a door on her left. Inside was dark; heavy shades were draped across the window. There was a bed with the strangest canopy, empty bookshelves and the barest room Argent had yet seen.

Before she could look at anything else, the door zipped closed in her face. With a startled squeak, she turned to see a boy in a black suit and partially white mask standing there. There was no spark of amiability in his stare.

"Ah... hello," Argent said quickly, backing up a step. This stranger was far too close for comfort.

"Do you normally go snooping through other people's rooms?" he questioned with narrowing eyes. The silver-skinned girl subtly shifted back and forth uneasily. She donned a pout.

"I... I didn't realize it was someone's room. There are loads of different rooms in this place... how can you tell what's private?" she asked in her charming accent. Her pronunciations were lost on X, who just pointed his thumb towards the spot on the door where the word "Raven" was written in large letters.

"Oh, I just guess most of the time," he replied evenly. When Argent remained silent, color rising in her cheeks X pointed over his shoulder, down the hallway. "Living room's that way."

.

Sparks showered onto the floor, bouncing like hail pellets before silently extinguishing their glow. Raven wielded her welding torch with practiced ease, quickly mending a minor gash along a robot's side. There had been a mishap earlier as some droids were moving crates around– some fell, landing on one of Raven's robots. It wasn't extensively damaged, but it took the better part of two hours to fix.

Raven set down the torch on the table her robot was sitting on, removed her goggles and inspected the job. The circuitry was repaired, but the blue covering had been too dented to be anything but replaced.

She turned to her two robots behind her, one holding the Cyborg-blue covering, the other holding the special torch to weld these panels together.

Slade walked into the repair room then, a piece of paper in his hand. He stopped at the table and waited silently until the girl had finished her work before handing her the note.

"I have a job for you," the man said. Raven raised her goggles to her forehead and skimmed the paper with an unreadable expression.

"Gotham docks? I've never been there. And Y… Yan…"

"Yanagisawa Jiro," Slade supplied effortlessly. "I have been doing business with him for quite awhile lately."

Raven arched a brow. "Business? Like what?" Her fixed robot hopped off the table and stood behind the girl, next to the other two droids.

"Like I get technology he wants and sell it to him. He is only one of the regular buyers I have, so the waiting list has become extensive," Slade explained. He clasped his hands behind his back and slowly began circling the table. "I've decided to introduce you to the business world, Raven. I'm going to need help getting these orders met."

The girl's expression hardened somewhat and a hand was resting on her hip in a defiant stance. "Business world? You mean your own little black market?" She couldn't help a slight smirk crinkle the side of her mouth.

"Call it what you will, my dear, but all the transactions are legal, I assure you," replied the man with a nod of his masked head. Raven let a humorous scoff slip.

"But what about the means you go through to get all the stuff you sell?" At that, Slade merely gave a tilt of his head.

"You're having fun with this, aren't you?" he asked in a knowing tone.

"Just a little."

"Well, for my sake at least, I hope you get that out of your system so you will be of the utmost seriousness tonight." The man stopped behind Raven to look over her shoulder and stare at the paper in her hand.

"Wait... I'm going to the docks tonight?" she questioned with wide eyes.

"Of course. It's a fairly simple task: the droids deliver the shipment, you wait with it until Yanagisawa arrives, he pays you and you leave," explained Slade in a tone that sounded as if Raven should have already known the procedure. He backed away from her a couple of paces and began inspecting the three droids, although there was nothing different about them aside from the Cyborg-like upgrades added months ago.

"And what about the shipment?" Raven asked, turning to face him.

"Once you have the money, it's no longer your concern."

"If you've only dealt with him, how will be believe you sent me?"

Slade stared at Raven for several moments, his thoughts unguessable by his expressionless gaze. The girl couldn't even _feel_ his mood; he just stared. Raven began wondering if she had said something wrong.

"My dear, after this long isn't it clear I take care of you?"

The girl balked. "Uh... y-yes," she replied slowly, awkwardly.

"Then why would I put you in a dangerous situation without first warning you?"

"You mean _other_ than all those times over the past few months?" she quickly asked. Raven folded her arms across her chest. "You have a seriously off-center sense of humor."

"Yes, but all those occurrences were for your training. This is for business and I would like things to go smoothly." Slade slowly began walking back around the table, heading for the door. "I have already informed those I regularly do business with about a change, so you won't be unexpected. And I expect you will represent me well."

"Wait, you've told other people– besides Yan…?"

Slade stopped before reaching the doorway and looked back at Raven over his shoulder, saying, "Depending on how well you perform tonight, this could become a new job for you. And before you go, I expect you to get the client's name _right_."


	3. Me, Myself, and Rage

**a.n. **There might be a hiatus after this chapter for a bit because with homework and all piling up, I'll have less time to write. But I'll try to keep making future chapters longer so there's something worth reading. lol

..

**Chapter 2**

"Yanagi… sawa," Raven said to herself. She was in her room getting ready and had been memorizing that name all afternoon. Once she had gotten it down, the girl kept repeating it so as to not sound like she just learned it.

Raven threw her cape over her shoulders, fastened the brooch and headed out into the main room. Slade was standing in front of the large attic widows, hands clasped behind his back. He watched her transparent reflection as she neared him.

"Ready?" he questioned, the windows magnifying his voice.

"Sure."

Slade turned to face her. "Enthusiastic tonight, aren't we? Here, wear this from now on." He held out his hand to show a brooch, bigger than hers but nearly identical in color. All that was different was instead of a dark raven profile, it had Slade's trademark "S."

The girl hesitantly reached out and took it. It wasn't nearly as pretty as her old one, but Raven wasn't about to bring that up. She exchanged the brooches and looked at Slade again.

"Where's the shipment?" she asked, looking around a surprisingly uncluttered main room.

"At the docks already. Seventh pier. Take no more than five of your droids and go," replied Slade quickly.

"Will Yanagisawa be there in person?" Raven questioned. Although she perfectly kept her emotions under control, her voice betrayed her discomfort with the situation.

"Yes." As she turned to leave, Slade called, "And Raven don't show fear to him or any of my clients."

Raven's brows furrowed and she stood straighter with a defiant air and hurt pride. "I don't show anything," she said in what could pass for a growl. With stony features, she grew into a large, shadowy bird, engulfed a few of her soldiers, and flew through the walls into the night sky.

.

The Gotham docks were just like the ones in Jump City– abandoned at night, poorly lit, and freezing cold. The wind was especially harsh that night and Raven's cloak never stopped fluttering once she and her four robots had landed near the entranceway. Slade had advised his apprentice to walk to the dock so as to be less threatening. Raven concluded from that that if such a loyal client could be so easily threatened, he couldn't be fully trusted.

Two of her robots led the way past storage buildings and walls of crates toward the dock where an unlit yacht waited. Raven could see figures waiting right next to the large boat, but suddenly stopped. Her head snapped around and she quickly scanned the building on her left. She had sensed someone moving– someone far from a friendly presence.

_"Slade, how many people are on this guy's side, exactly?"_ she called out with her thoughts. Only recently had Raven opened her mind for communication, and since then she had discarded her earpiece; this telepathic means of communication was much simpler – and she controlled when it opened or closed.

_"Just Jiro and whoever he needs to load his order. Why?" _came the reply.

_"Because it's feeling more like an ambush to me."_ Her robots all looked toward the warehouse as well, scanning it with their own sensors.

_"Explain."_

_"There's someone off to the side; I haven't even reached Yanagisawa yet."_

_"Then don't bother with it. Leave it for the droids. Right now, your priority is delivering the order. My robots are waiting with it in the warehouse right next to the dock and won't bring it out until you arrive. So _hurry up_."_

With a huff, Raven closed the mental link, motioned for her guards to stay and investigate, and floated on to meet the waiting party. However, the girl could not take her mind off that malicious presence. It was no one's she recognized, but she felt threatened by it.

The three men loitering on the dock quickly straightened when a blue hooded and cloaked figure drifted silently from the shadows. Two looked like they were ready to reach for something inside their jackets at any moment. Raven set her feet on the wooden planks a couple of yards away, giving the probably paranoid, trigger-happy bodyguards plenty of space.

"Yanagisawa?" the girl called in a monotone voice and obvious foreign pronunciation. The man in the middle, the only one wearing a suit, took a step forward and his guards seemed to relax.

"You're late," he replied with an accent. "Where is it?" Raven looked toward the nearest warehouse, wondering that herself.

"Patience," she said evenly. Several moments passed. Just when it looked like the guards were reaching inside their jackets again, they all started hearing footsteps and saw robots marching out of the shadows carrying large, rectangular cases. The robots, one at each end of trunk, set them down halfway between Raven and Yanagisawa and retreated. The client smirked and gave a sharp snap of his fingers. Many more men jumped from the yacht onto the dock to take the cases away, and one produced his own sizeable case which he offered to Raven.

"You're not going to check it?" the girl questioned with a raised eyebrow as she watched the men— with much more difficulty than her robots— haul the shipment away. Yanagisawa observed her quizzically.

"In all the years of dealing with your master, he has never once given me reason to doubt his credibility. And if I start now, I am afraid I would offend him," he explained with a sting of haughtiness in his speech. "Just like you would offend me by checking the money I've paid you." Immediately Raven stopped inspecting it.

_"Can I trust him like he says?"_ she asked Slade.

_"Yes. Just leave with your payment."_

_"But for all the cases we've given, we just get one? Is that very fair?"_

_"It's sufficient. Now take it and leave."_

Raven cast one last suspicious glance at Yanagisawa and his bodyguards, who were slowly following the crates back to the yacht, before turning and floating back the way she had come. As she approached the warehouses, she heard sounds of struggle, and metal against metal. Her head snapped up and the girl saw three robots on the roof of one building trying to take on a female figure. Without a second thought Raven flew up to join them and nearly got slashed by long claws when she landed. One of her droids wasn't so lucky because the claws passed right through its neck. Decapitated, it tumbled over, joining the first fallen comrade.

Raven's eyes glowed a bright white. Black barriers immediately enveloped her remaining two droids just in time because several shuriken bounced off both shields. Black beams exploded from Raven's fists, through both were evaded. With a huff, Raven concentrated on the long claws the green-clad girl wore and ripped them from her arms. She then used them to slash at the stranger, but the masked girl jumped out of reach.

Raven let the claws clatter to the ground and quickly reached out with her magic and caught the attacker by the throat. The stranger dangled in midair, an inescapable shadow hand holding her neck. A second later, her cat mask popped off and flew into Raven's hand, but Raven still didn't recognize her.

"All right, floozie, who are you and why are you attacking my guys?" demanded the dark girl with Slade-like authority.

Struggling, the stranger forced out some words in a foreign language Raven couldn't even identify.

"Perfect," muttered Raven. "One of _those_." She touched her forehead and called out, _"Slade, what's your position on taking prisoners?" _

.

"Cheshire," Slade read from the information page he had pulled up on the screen in the main room. Raven had brought her back with her two remaining droids and kept her hovering several feet off the ground, her body from the neck down wrapped in shadow.

"Looks like you're a far way from home," he muttered half to himself. Slade looked at the prisoner. "So were you just in the wrong place at the wrong time or were you trying to sabotage my trade?"

Raven scoffed. "I've been trying to get her to talk the whole way here, but she won't speak any Engl—"

"My business has nothing to do with your trade, two-face," Cheshire cut in suddenly. "I'm on my own mission."

"Which is?" prompted Slade in his seldom-used friendly air.

"Piss off," she hissed. "I don't have to tell you crap." The man just chuckled.

"By the looks of the situation, I say you don't have much of a choice," Slade replied calmly, approaching her. He stopped a foot away from her face; she was eye-level with him.

"I'm hunting someone, now jeez, back off."

"Unless you're hunting Yanagisawa, I don't see why you attacked my apprentice."

"Her idiot guards attacked me first," growled Cheshire. "My business is not with you, Cyclops, so you have no reason to hold me here. Let me go."

"Feisty," Slade chuckled again. "But at least for now, I think I'll keep you around."

Cheshire's slanted eyes narrowed into slits. "When I get free, I'm gonna rip your—" Shadow swept over her head then, too, and for the first time in the conversation, Slade seemed to remember Raven was there.

"Let her finish. With that attitude, it was bound to be something good." He sounded humored, which made Raven's glower deepen.

"Why are we keeping her? She's an amateur fighter and now no threat to us whatsoever." Slade turned back to the computer and skimmed through more of Cheshire's criminal record.

"It should prove interesting to detain her for now and see what she was really doing there at the docks tonight. Besides—" He broke off as he slowly eyed the prisoner up and down, "it could be fun to have a new face around here." He shut the computer off. "Put her in the spare room at the end of the hall. We can use that for a brig."

With a poorly-concealed huff, Raven turned and forced Cheshire ahead toward the new brig.

.

The clock read two-eighteen in the morning the umpteenth time Raven checked it from her bed. She had yet to fall asleep. Her mind would not stop wandering and her emotions would not simmer. But then again, she didn't _want_ her emotions to simmer. They were comforting somehow. Raven liked the feeling of rage and embitterment, and as long as they stayed at controllable levels, she wouldn't have to meditate.

By the time two-fifty-eight rolled around, Raven decided that just lying in bed was utterly boring, so she got up, pulled a blue robe around her, and padded out to the main room. She headed over to the huge windows and soft _thunk_ echoed as her forehead met glass. Even at all hours of the morning, the city was alive with all different colors of lights. If Raven would have been looking at it, it would have been kind of pretty. But her thoughts were as numerous as the lights.

What was causing this rush of emotions? After a calming breath, the kind she started her meditations with, a masked Cheshire flashed through her mind. Raven pressed her forehead harder against the cold windows. Slade had seemed… almost excited when he talked with Cheshire— Raven could feel it. And her immediate reaction was jealousy.

This had never happened before. Then again, she had never brought a prisoner home before. Maybe this was a normal reaction? With another sigh, Raven pressed a hand against the glass, welcoming the sharp, cold sensation.

For several more minutes, the girl just stood there, letting her emotions slowly build like a fire inside of her, dwelling on everything that made her mad. Her thoughts no longer lingered on _what_ made her feel that way, but rather on just remaining mad. It was somewhat exciting letting her emotions, negative though they may be, build with little restraint. Just as exciting as some of the jobs Slade sent her on. There was something about the threat of being caught, the danger of it all, that made it… _fun._ Fun that she was doing something she wasn't supposed to. Like now: Raven wasn't supposed to feel strong emotions for so long, but… _but Slade seemed almost attracted to Cheshire._

With a gasp Raven practically jumped back from the window. Her gaze flashed around the room trying to discover where that thought had come from; it hadn't even sounded like her own voice.

The dark girl touched her head. She was just protective of her master. There was nothing wrong with that. Having an overwhelming urge to completely bash in Cheshire's face— mask and all— beyond any recognition was completely normal. Wasn't it? It wasn't because…

Raven let out a deep breath. _Maybe meditation is a good idea after all._ With on final glance at the city lights, Raven turned and headed back toward her room. Right as she reached it, the door to the new brig down the hall opened and Slade stepped out, closing it behind him. When master and apprentice noticed each other, they stopped dead.

Naturally, Slade was the first to recover, clasping his hands behind his back and walking for the main room.

"It's three in the morning. Shouldn't you be in bed, Raven?" he asked calmly as he passed.

"I could ask you the same question," she retorted, anger and jealousy surging anew. The door to her room was soaked in shadow and banged open so hard that all its hinges broke. Slade stopped and looked back over his shoulder.

"No," he replied simply. "No, you couldn't." And he continued on.

The door wasn't hard to fix, but still Raven leaned against it once it was closed as if only that would keep it held up. Her emotions were slowly coming under control.

What was going on? Raven had felt like ripping off the entire roof, grabbing Cheshire, and flinging her so hard she'd land in another dimension. Even Raven knew that wasn't a normal feeling to be harboring. And she didn't want to do it out of protection for her master. There was the obvious conclusion, but… no.

_Denial is for the weak._

Raven jumped, stifling a scream. Instead, it came out as a gasp as she looked around her room. Where had those words come from? She hadn't even been thinking them.

The dark girl rubbed her forehead as she meandered over to her bed. Maybe things would be clearer in the morning after her regular meditation. There was not much else Raven could do at three in the morning.

_Besides, it's much easier to see Cheshire in the daylight to utterly slaughter her._

With an irritated growl, Raven threw herself on her bed and pulled the covers up over her face. This voice was starting to sound like Rage, and Raven did not feel like hearing it any more.


	4. Caught in a net

**Chapter 3**

The next morning in Titans Tower, Argent and Starfire were in the main room searching through the computer for any kind of news. Argent, with brow tightly furrowed, tacked away at the keyboard much harder and faster.

"She couldn't have just disappeared. Not when she left such an obvious trail from halfway across the world," muttered the silver-skinned girl.

"Perhaps Cheshire has found the one she was seeking?"

"No. I don't think she knows her target yet. We would've heard of an assassination or a kidnapping if she had. So where did she go?"

.

Raven sloppily poured her morning tea. By the time she finished, more tea was pooled on the counter than was in the cup. The girl was still too sleepy to care, so as she headed for the windows, tea in hand, a washrag flew out of a drawer and landed on the mess.

Minutes later Slade entered, briskly checking the room. He gave an impatient, "Oh, there you are," before announcing, "I have a job for you." Raven turned slightly to cast an indifferent glance his way.

_Oh, _now_ he notices us._ The thought settled in the back of her mind for only a moment before fading, leaving a bitter feeling in Raven's gut. Her eyebrows lowered to match. Slade, however, proceeded, not noticing anything.

"I want you to go to the Wayne Co. building and take the blueprints from the seventh floor safe in the head developer's room. It'll be on a disc." He turned to go back down the hallway.

"Wait, right now?" Raven asked incredulously. She pointed to the windows. "It's morning— everyone's at work."

"So cause a distraction," said the man simply, slowing to look back at her. "Maybe like knocking down one of the letters on the roof?" With a nod to send her off, Slade disappeared down the hallway.

_Off to visit his new plaything?_ The cup in Raven's hand grew black and shattered.

.

The rest of the Titans had gathered in the living room, and sometime in there X had appeared on the couch and silently watched them. The boys did their best to ignore him.

"So," Argent concluded, "if you have any suggestions to track Cheshire, that would be fantastic. I'm afraid she's planning something… unusually big since she's not made a move for a bit. We need to get back on her tail. Immediately."

"We're going to need help," Robin said, holding his chin. Cyborg looked form Argent to Robin.

"Titans East? We could have them keep a lookout in their area, see if they've seen her," he suggested. Robin nodded.

"Also bring some of them here to Jump City to help."

"The more the merrier," Argent chipped in.

"Who's getting married?" blinked Starfire from the computer. Argent glanced to the other Titans in the room, surveying them to see if they mirrored her perplexed expression, but everyone else, including X, did not react to the alien's outburst.

"No, Star," Cyborg replied with a slight chuckle. "She meant merry, not marry." Starfire tilted her head as an even more confused expression broke out on her face, while Beast Boy rolled on the couch in a fit of laughter.

"Please, what is the difference?"

Argent slipped from the computer controls and neared Robin, who was observing his teammates with slight disapproval.

"This lot's gotten a smidge off topic…"

He grunted. "That happens a lot around here."

"They always have this short of attention spans?" commented Argent with an impatient huff.

"More like _no_ attention sp—"

Just then an alarm blared from the computer and the screen switched to a blueprint of the Wayne Co. building. The Titans quieted and watched a dot flicker at the very top of the building before a live video stream appeared in one corner, showing the "N" in Wayne had toppled over, though nearly unable to be seen in all the thick, billowing smoke.

"We may be back on her trail after all," Argent piped up. Robin turned back to his team, ready to order them to action, when he noticed X was gone.

.

_What if he just sent you off so he could be alone with _her_?_ Rage purred maliciously. _Sending you on this absurd mission gives him all the time in the world._

Raven glared ahead of her, watching for sensors as she flew through the building's air ducts. By the time she found the seventh floor, the employees already knew about the incident on the roof; building security were performing their jobs irritatingly well, scouring the entire building.

She hovered over the vent to the head developer's office on the seventh floor as a couple guards entered. They gave the room a quick, trained sweep before exiting with a _slam!_ of the door.

This truly was an absurd mission, Raven admitted to herself, sinking into the room and landing behind the expensive desk. She hurriedly began sweeping through different folders on the computer. About a minute later, after she had finished cursing whoever invented the computer, she finally found the document she was looking for and double clicked.

Password required.

The family photo next to the computer grew black and the glass cracked, disfiguring all the faces.

"Well," a voice chuckled, "I guess you haven't been taught how to hack yet." Raven glance over to the windows to see a caped boy sitting there.

"Should I push you back through the window now, X, or are you going to help me?"

X sauntered forward, "I _could_ help you… for a price." A giant shadow hand appeared, grabbed the thief by his neck, and ran his head into the desk.

"How about this; you help me and I don't inflict massive amounts of torment on your body?" Raven said coldly.

X gave a small sputter. "Well, when you put it like that…" The shadow hand faded and X straightened, moving in front of the computer with a dignified air. He took a gadget out of his utility belt that resembled a flash drive, but bulkier and more high-tech, and plugged it into the base of the monitor. A window popped up on the screen and numbers and letters flashed across it.

"You're in a surprisingly good mood today," X commented as they waited for the computer to choose the right password.

"Shut up."

A minute later, the code locked in, the window vanished, and the document opened. Raven pushed the thief aside and inserted a blank disc.

"So… it's been awhile." A silence followed. Raven silently waited for the large vile to copy over. X continued undaunted, "After you ran off with what's-his-name, it's been pretty hard to find you."

"You're looking?" the girl practically barked. She stayed focused on the computer screen and X circled the desk to face her.

"Just… curious as to why you two have been so low key lately. Slade loves his grand spectacles. Always grabbing _someone's_ attention."

Raven glowered as he carried on.

"Jump City's been boring without any of your buddy's shows. I hope he hasn't up and moved to play in another town."

The girl pulled out X's small gadget from the monitor and flung it at him. "You're no longer needed here." A mechanical chuckle hissed from his mask.

"Easy there, Lady PMS," he said. He slipped the technology back into his belt. "But fine, I'll go and make room for your next set of visitors."

Raven's head snapped up only to find X was gone. A chime from the computer alerted her that the file had finally finished copying over and she quickly ejected it. As she closed it inside a jewel case, Raven sensed two people coming down the hall toward her location long before she heard the heavy footfalls.

She flew for the air duct. The door banged open, accompanied by the sound of weapon fire. Raven hit the duct hard and fell to the floor. She was trapped inside a glowing blue net that she couldn't slip through.

"Hey, it works!" a familiar voice cried excitedly from behind her. Raven looked up to see Cyborg standing there in the doorway, a sliver-skinned girl hovering near his shoulder.

"Hey, Rae, what's up?" he asked as if she had just been gone for a day.

"What is this? What'd you do?" growled Raven, a deeper, menacing voice mingling with her own.

"Something I invented after you left," Cyborg replied and patted his blaster arm. Argent landed next to him.

_Who's she? _Rage grunted. Raven's eyes glowed a bright white as she struggled in the net, but she found it still was not about to give.

"We've apprehended the suspect," Argent chirped into her Titans communicator. Robin was there not two seconds later, diving in through the open window only to stop dead in his tracks. His eyes narrowed.

"Never though we'd see _you_ again," he muttered. Beast Boy and Starfire hurried into the room behind Cyborg, and while Beast Boy balked, Starfire flew to Raven's side.

"Oh, joyous occasion!" cried the Tamaranian. She threw her arms around Raven— net and all— and Raven grunted in dismay.

"Alright," Robin interrupted. "Let's take her back to the tower." He scanned the room himself before investigating the air duct. Cyborg hefted Raven over his shoulder and meandered down the hallway, teammates following.

Raven's attention was mainly on the new Titans member, who seemed so familiar, but the dark girl couldn't place her. She barely heard Starfire prattle on about something, even though the Tamaranian was in what she thought was Raven's line of vision.

"…Oh, and we've been saving all your magazines, friend! All your mail is in your room, and—"

That registered with Raven. "You went into my room?" she croaked, eyebrow quirking.

"Technically, not yours," replied Cyborg quickly. "But it's still there…. Robin won't let me use it to build my dream arcade."

"I know!" Beast Boy squawked indignantly. "That's like your best idea _ever_ and Robin totally shot it down!"

The silver-skinned newbie was understandably quiet, Raven though, sensing her apprehension. _Could they find someone who looks any _more_ like us?_ hissed Rage. _How pathetic. _

They reached the elevators and Cyborg hit the down button and waited. While the old members chatted, sometimes trying to include Raven, a few guards rounded the corner and demanded to take custody of the perpetrator. Cyborg arched a brow.

"Did y'all catch 'er?"

"What? No," the lead guard replied, balking. Beast Boy shrugged as the elevator doors slid open and the team slowly backed in.

"Sorry, gents, but catchers keepers, and we've got dibs." He quickly hit the switch to close the doors and descend. A peppy, old-fashioned tune amused most of the group in the silence that followed.

_Congratulations. You're a prize to be fought over._ Raven glowered.

A Titan's communicator jingle competed with the elevator music until Argent picked hers up, chirping, "Yeh, what've ya got?" As the rest of the Titans listened in, Raven subtlely struggled inside the tight net to reach up to her new brooch and press the jewel.

"Hey, Bee here," came the answer over the communicator. "We haven't seen nothin' strange in our neighborhood, but we're on our way."

Beast Boy gave a chipper laugh, "Party with Titans East tonight!"

"Hey, awright," smiled Cyborg. "You're bringing back that prototype kayak you took witchu last time, right?"

"I _know_ that's not Tin Man talkin' to me," Bee snapped, "Cuz I'm still not talkin' to him after that _thang_ last time. You tell him that, girl. Catch y'all later, we're almost there. East out."

Argent closed her communicator and glanced over to Cyborg sympathetically. "Sounds like you're in a bit of a mess, mate."

"She needs to just _get over_ that," glowered Cyborg as the elevator hit the first floor. The doors slowly opened and he was the first one out, still ranting over his shoulder. "That happened two months ago and she's just takin' it too personal—" Weapon fire suddenly hit him square in the chest, forcing him back against the rest of the group, knocking them over like bowling pins. Raven was dropped in the process and when she hit the ground, she set to work trying everything she could think of to get free. The Titans quickly got to their feet. There were at least ten robots of Slade's standing around the elevator, all their weapons trained on them.

"What's _this_?" cried Argent, staring wide-eyed from behind Starfire.

"Old friends," Beast Boy muttered. He morphed into a bull, scuffing its front hoof, while his teammates readied their own attacks. Robin dropped down from the open stairwell behind the robots and pounced on the closest droid, giving Beast Boy time to charge. The other three followed, raining everything they could shoot down on their adversaries. The Cyborg-enhanced robots were quickly defeated, utterly destroyed beyond repair, and when the team turned to collect Raven, they found she was gone, net and all.

Beast Boy scratched his head. "I guess we shoulda seen that one coming."

"Back to the tower, everyone," ordered Robin, surveying the scene evenly. "I don't think this had much to do with Cheshire."

.

X watched a glowing blue net run rather haphazardly into the back alleyway of the Wayne Co. building. It stopped under a fire escape and two hands shot between the ropes, trying to rip or tear anything they caught. The thief found his way over to the fire escape and scaled down with the dexterity of a cat.

"So," he started when he reached the ground, "looks like things are lookin' up for you. You got away, after all."

"You better hope you're not within three miles of me when I get out," Raven growled in a deeper voice than normal. The thief whipped out a sharp red x, a superior tilt to his head.

"How 'bout you settle down before I let you out?"

And Raven did stop her struggling and hissing, if just to redirect all her energy into glaring at X. "Why do you have such an interest in my affairs?" X silently began slicing through the blue ropes.

"You never put forth effort unless there's something in it for you."

The thief finished cutting a big enough hole for her to shrug through before suggesting, "Maybe I've turned over a new leaf?"

"Maybe I think you're lying?" Two of Raven's droids dropped behind her then, weapons aimed at X but at a commanding wave from Raven they halted. She neared them, not turning her back to the thief. He just leaned against the brick wall, unalarmed by the extra firepower.

"Maybe you should have more faith in people?"

"Maybe you're not as quick as you think?" Raven reached behind her back and pulled a red x from her utility belt, gazing hard at him before flinging it at his head. She encased both her guards in a shadow bird and all three sank into the ground.

X had easily caught the small tracking device and rolled one of the legs between his fingers as he watched the party leave. He vented a mirthless chuckle. "Really thought she hadn't noticed that one."

.

Bumblebee and Speedy were waiting in the living room when the rest of the Titans arrived.

"Where's the rest of you?" was Robin's greeting while the others were a little friendlier. The boys high fived and Starfire tried to hug them both.

"Aqualad might come by when he's done with his mission," Bee said with a wave of her hand that told him to calm down, "and the twins are holdin' down the fort back home."

"We saw something going on in the city," Speedy spoke up once he had wrenched free from Starfire. "What's up?"

"Old friend dropped in to say hi," replied Cyborg. At his firm tone, Speedy didn't pry.

"'Kay, so," called Bee, "this Cheshire girl. Shown up yet?" Robin shook his head.

"Then it's a good thang East's here. Why y'all standin' around? Let's get t'work, people!"

.

Raven was slightly surprised to see Slade in the main room when she returned. She fished the disc out of her belt and held it out, approaching him.

"Here are the blueprints."

"Put it by the monitor; I'll get to it later," he said with a distracted wave of his hand. He was leaning over a table strewn with papers of different maps, calculations, and diagrams. Apparently they made sense to Slade.

_So he sends us out for something he doesn't need?_ Rage stirred in the back of Raven's mind. With a huff she sent to disc floating across the room to the large keyboards. The girl unclasped her cape and draped it over her arm, trying to sound perfectly indifferent as she asked, "Is that cat burglar still here?"

Slade gave a chuckle. "She tried to escape three times, but yes, she's still here."

"Why do we need her?" Raven bit out, stalking over to his table. Her cape disturbed some sheets of paper and Slade had to reach halfway across the table to slam his hand down and keep them from moving. He eyed her accusingly. She stared back unrepentant.

"She might come in valuable shortly," he replied, straightening.

"Another new apprentice?" Raven had the head bob of a disobedient teenager down perfectly. _If he says yes, take his other eye out._

"Careful, Raven," Slade almost chuckled again. "Someone like you getting jealous is dangerous." He returned to studying the papers in front of him and did not notice the girl's cheeks color slightly. "But no, I never have more than one apprentice at a time. Cheshire is merely a tool."

One of Raven's eyebrows quirked. "A tool for what?"

"For something you don't need to be informed of yet." The girl dropped her cape onto the table, scattering some papers dangling off the edge onto the floor. Although Slade looked about ready to backhand her, Raven retained her defiant stare.

"It's been almost a year and you still don't trust me with any of your plans?" Her tone wasn't curious in the least bit, just blatantly accusatory.

"Trust is hard earned, my dear," replied Slade smoothly. His heavy focus was now completely on her and she could feel the intimidation weigh down on her.

"Haven't I sufficiently proven myself?"

"When you've been through what I have, you won't be so quick to believe in others, just within the short span of one year," he said evenly. Raven fought back a scowl.

At Rage's urging the girl muttered, "I don't like her here. The sooner you can use her and _get rid_ of her, the better." And she grabbed her cape and whipped it off the table, unsettling about half the maps and papers.

"Raven!" Slade yelled as papers fell around him like snow. All of a sudden each sheet bled black and hung suspended for a moment before slamming back into the table with such a force that Slade was pushed back a step and an ominous _crack_ came from somewhere under the table.

"Watch your attitude," he chided her retreating back in what was supposed to be a commanding tone, but Raven heard an amused lilt slip out with it.

_Maybe we should step in and get rid of her for him._ Rage was jostled to the back of Raven's mind again. If she hadn't pushed it with the table, the suggestion would have been enticing. But after living nearly eight months with Slade, she was well becoming aware of the limits and boundaries. And besides, as long as Slade had her, he wouldn't take on another apprentice. That gave Raven a surging feeling of importance and a proud smirk tugged at one corner of her mouth.

_He's got you as his one apprentice, but who _knows_ how many lovers he's got on the side?_ The door Raven was passing then broke off its hinges and flew into the opposite wall so hard it stuck. Raven held her head, wide-eyed. Where had _that_ thought come from?

Rage twittered in her own little corner of Raven's mind, pleased.

"I just need to eat something," she muttered.

Right as she made it to her room, Slade looked down the hallway. "Are you destroying my property again?"

"No," Raven snipped and disappeared behind her door.

..

**a.n. **Wow. So it's been nearly a year since I updated this and I am so sorry. Life got me sidetracked. That and I sort of lost interest, but I think the interest's back! Hopefully… no promises as to when the next update is, though. But I want it to pick up from here… so expect action! Revelation! Wait, maybe not so much revelation yet. But action! Hope you liked this update! :D


	5. Snappage

**Chapter 4**

Argent gave an exasperated huff as she scrolled through a police report that proved unrelated.

"So this cat girl is hunting someone," Bumblebee said, leaning on the back of the large couch. "Is she doin' this for herself or did someone hire 'er?"

"Unless it's a personal vendetta, I doubt she'd go to such lengths on her own," the silver-skinned girl said. Her face creased with a frown. "How could she just disappear?"

"Well have y'asked around?" Bee questioned with a wiggle of her head that made her hair puffs bounce. Argent looked back at her.

"I wouldn't know where to start. Do I sound like I'm from around here?"

Bumblebee smirked and gestured toward the exit with her head. "C'mon then. We can get Starfire and it'll be a girl's day out."

.

Raven slowly, purposefully swung one arm over her head and out in front of her, followed by the other one. She repeated this movement, feeling her powers follow the arcs her hands made. An observer might have thought it looked like some kind of swimming tai chi, but Raven was too far into the forest to be bothered by onlookers.

Just as she pushed both hands down in her last meditative stretch, Slade walked into the small battered clearing, hands behind his back. It had been the same schedule for months now, yet this was still Raven's least favorite part of the day. No matter how much Slade said she had improved, Raven could not grow to like powerless hand-to-hand training. She rarely ever won.

The girl assumed a fighting stance; he stayed standing. Raven initiated the attack, charging for him with fists raised. He sidestepped and leaned easily out of the reach of her aim. The girl instantly about-faced and dove for Slade before he could turn all the way around, she had caught him in the side; tackled him to the ground. Slade was apparently thinking faster than her because as they hit the ground, he grabbed her arms and forced her off him. The girl rolled to a stop in a different direction. Once they were both on their feet again, Slade was the first to move.

They fought on for nearly the whole allotted hour before Slade spoke up. His voice was strained. "I'm surprised with you, Raven. Usually you're—" he gave a low grunt as he blocked a kick, "more talkative than this."

The girl scowled. A snarl followed when he evaded an elbow shot to his ribs. Slade chuckled between breaths.

"This is just disappointing."

Teeth gritted, Raven lunged for him. She had the perfect attack to bring him to his knees, but right as she reached him, he moved almost too fast for her to see and she felt a pain slash across her legs. The next thing Raven knew, she was on her back.

Slade leaned over her slightly. "Take more care in your approach. When you rush right into it, you drop your defenses and your intentions are blatantly obvious." Raven lay there, panting and glaring. Slade stepped back a pace and gave her some room.

"Well, don't fall asleep. We've got work to do. I have a mission for you in Gotham."

Raven pushed herself up with visible effort. Apparently Rage was similarly tired because she did not offer any snide comment.

"Two missions in one day?" the dark girl breathed, nearing Slade. He feigned surprise at her lapse in the silent treatment.

"Oh, you're speaking to me now?" Raven merely glowered in response and he added seriously, "Yes, a client is buying those blue prints you stole earlier. I'll inform you about everything back at the base." Which was a signal for her to transport them home.

.

Three Titan girls landed at the outskirts of Jump City, in the beginning of suburbia, most obvious in the prevalence of lawns and cute, family-sized houses and cars. What Bumblebee was leading the others to was an apartment complex: tall, unassuming, and middle class.

Argent glanced around, poorly hiding a confused expression. "This seems to be a rather odd of a location to be someone's headquarters."

"No headquarters," Bee said with a smirk. "But we've been keeping an eye on a girl here since this is our sector." The team leader then began scanning the building carefully before flying slowly around back. The other two followed until Bee cried, "Here we go!" and dropped onto one of the third story balconies. She rapped on the glass sliding door as Argent and Starfire joined her. A couple seconds later the curtains parted a smidge. A groan followed.

"Hey! _'Ey!_ We _did_ say we had the right to drop in at any time, girl. Let's go," Bee nearly shouted, head bobbing with authority. Argent traded curious and confused glances with Starfire. The curtains drew back before the door clicked unlocked and slid open. Starfire's eyes nearly started glowing.

"You? What is the meaning of this trickery?"

"Whoa, Star, calm down girl. No trick!" Bumblebee interrupted quickly, a hand shooting over to almost hold Starfire back from doing anything sudden. Argent just glanced from the Titans to the girl in question. Her clothes were normal, jeans and a dark hoodie. Her pink hair, up in strange pigtails, and her dull gray skin were almost made to look human in such a setting and ensemble.

"Star," Bee said soothingly. "East made a deal with Jinx. She stays in our neck of the woods and we don't throw her in jail as long as we can keep an eye on her and visit every now and again."

"You 'visited' like two weeks ago," Jinx sighed, frowning. Bee introduced her to Argent before inviting herself and the Titans in.

"This is different, hon, we got questions that have to do with your connections." The leader took half of the couch and motioned for others to gather around. Argent took a recliner, Jinx, uneasily, the other half of the couch, and Starfire tried to figure out the bean bag chair.

"This again?" the unwilling hostess grumbled. Her shoulders slouched. "I have _nothing_ to do with the Hive 5 anymore. I don't know what half of them are up to."

"I ain't talkin' boutcha amateur friends. I mean bigger news," Bee said, reclining. Jinx shifted uneasily under three Titan stares, one of which was coming from a Tamaranian halfway into a bean bag.

"My girl Argent here," continued Bumblebee, "tracked someone named Cheshire— you remember her, right?— all the way from Australia and once she got here, lost her trail. Maybe the circles you ran in before know anything about her? An' don't lie. We've seen Gizmo stop by every now and then."

"Okay, I haven't heard about Cheshire since the big fight with that crazy Brotherhood, but I've heard other things. I don't know if it's what you're looking for, though," Jinx said quietly. The three Titans simultaneously leaned closer. "There's a new boss gathering underlings for serious missions. The Hive broke up because of it since some of the boys joined this new organization."

"This organization got a name?" interrupted Bee.

"I just know what I hear from people outside the network," Jinx shrugged. "This thing isn't run by kids. And they're not out for attention or else you'd know more about them. I guess they've been on the east coast most of the time— because they've been around awhile."

"And why do you think Cheshire is connected with them?" Argent questioned, already halfway out of her chair. Jinx almost laughed.

"I'm not saying there is a connection, but really, who would go all the way to Australia on _our_ kind of missions? Our little groups barely interact with the outside world… we barely even act like there's a world outside this city. Like I said, it's not kids' stuff. It's the kind of stuff you leave to guys like Batman." A heavy silence followed, all the Titans seemingly pondering something. "But hey, even I don't know the details," The pink-haired girl added quickly.

"It's worth investigating," Bumblebee decided and stood up. "Thanks for your help, girl. We'll be in touch." Argent and Starfire followed her to the sliding door.

"Can't wait," sighed Jinx.

.

Slade enlarged a map of Gotham city on the monitor.

"I know you don't frequent this part of town much, but my client's establishment is hard to miss," he said briskly as several pictures popped up of a tall building with flashing neon signs. "Probably the most popular casino in all of Gotham."

"You do business with the owner of the Lucky 7s?" Raven asked incredulously. The Titans got reports nearly every week of something sinister happening in or around the casino, gang related or otherwise. But that was Batman's territory, so all they could do was collect information.

"There is a lot of money to be made when a buyer has half the business in Gotham," shrugged Slade. "He's expecting you tonight at eleven. You can go alone; Mr. Forster is no threat in any way. And lose the cape."

"I don't exactly have normal clothes," Raven informed him.

"Then I suggest you go shopping."

Raven made room for him as he returned to his map-covered table. She followed. "And what will you be doing?"

"Nothing that is of your concern."

Rage gave a snarl and Raven found the sentiment was amplified in her expression. _Once we get home tonight, let's take care of Cheshire._ The suggestion was a malicious purr. _Along with all her worthlessness._ A faint, bitter grin cracked on Raven's face.

"Get to work," Slade called over his shoulder.

.

Robin leaned against the back of the couch, chin in hand an the three Titan girls standing in front of him. He squinted in concentration at nothing in particular. "So there's a new villain who's recruiting kids for missions. And Cheshire might be one of them."

"Could this be Slade amassing such a group?" Starfire suggested with a speculative tilt of her head. Robin's brow instinctively furrowed.

"He's been lying low recently, but I don' think it's related to this mystery group. It's someone else."

Bumblebee nodded. "Right, so, we should split into a few teams, one to keep looking for Cheshire, one—"

"If you don't mind, Bee, I'll call the shots," Robin broke in with a meaningful stare. The Titans East leader put a hand on her hip and gave a defensive bob of her head.

"Geez, sorry," she said in a tone far from it.

"Starfire, you and the guys do a little digging and see what Raven's been up to lately and why she broke into the Wayne building. Argent, you and I will continue the search for Cheshire. Bee, you and Speedy find out more about this new group. Let's go!"

Starfire bolted out of the room and Argent was at the monitor nearly as fast. Bumblebee flashed Robin a critiquing look before sauntering out of the room.

.

Raven had spent so long as a Teen Titan that even after seven months with Slade, she still felt certain things were unethical. Stealing, for one. The area around their attic hideout was full of department stores, malls, and an array of vendors, half of which Raven had probably saved from robbery or other disasters at least once in the past. She wouldn't take from any of them. She _would_, however, take from the store room of Jump City's infamous crime ring that even Robin couldn't stop. He had put the leaders in jail enough times, but there was never enough evidence to keep them there for too long. Raven took from their hoard without hesitation. And Slade always laughed at her logic.

But she did find a nicely fitted suit and shoes in the dark, chaotically arranged storage. It was a deeper blue than her cape and contrasted too well against her gray skin. Her hair was pulled back into a harsh ponytail and she looked like she was best suited to stand in a funeral home.

"You're my apprentice… not my lawyer," Slade commented as he handed her a necklace. On a thick gold chain hung a black stone with his "s" mark embellished with gold leaf.

"I lost the cape," she replied quickly. With an approving glance at the jewelry she added, "Don't expect this back." Slade held a briefcase out at arm's length.

"Stay on guard tonight."

"For anything in particular?" She finished hooking the necklace and reached for the case.

"Just in general."

"You're not telling me something," Raven said flatly with narrowed eyes. It was ridiculous for her to try to scrutinize him when his mask could never express anything and his body was trained to convey nothing. But she still tried to capture some kind of hint. Slade leaned forward and said in a tone as if he were dealing with a child, "I _always_ don't tell you something."

A hand went to her hip. "And what aren't you telling me now?"

"Everything." He stepped back and motioned broadly to the door. "It's nearly time and Mr. Forster is not a man to be kept waiting."

.

Flying to Gotham hardly took any time, but Raven had to land in a far off alley and walk down the right streets to be spotted by the right eyes, as Slade had warned her. She merged onto the main road and disappeared into the brightly colored crowds of people, all of whom seemed to know where they were going. Or at least they brushed passed her confidently enough. Fortunately the Lucky 7s was hard to miss in its neon extravagance.

When Raven got to the large doors, the bouncer closer to her merely nodded and gestured for her to enter. She replied with an uncomfortable head jerk.

To Raven, there was nothing special about this casino. It was bright, loud, and just as obnoxious as any other she had glimpsed. It was built in a way that made you lose track of time and money. But there was no time for Raven to be distracted by any of the expensive annoyances because she noticed a man in a suit against a far wall beckoning to her.

Somehow this was more shady than the business on the dock.

The girl neared him nevertheless and he led her to an elevator where they rode silently to the top floor. The doors opened to reveal what looked like a lavish penthouse, wealthy guests included. Raven was led between the classy crowds into a back room where three other large, suited men surrounded what had to be Mr. Forster. He was older, pudgy, and trying to hide it in rich clothes and accessories. His attempts actually accentuated his problems.

"So, this is Slade's man," Forster began as he motioned a thick hand for Raven to sit. "I thought he wasn't telling me something big." He surveyed her from behind tinted shades. "Like that fact that it was his lawyer he was sending." And his guards laughed on the right cue.

Raven set the briefcase on the table with a stony expression to make the transaction as short as possible. She opened the case to show the neatly-packed disc, along with other documents Slade had added.

Forster chuckled. "What's the rush, doll? Let's chat, get to know each other. I like knowing my business associates. For starters, what's your name, sweetie?"

Inwardly, Raven was reeling with disgust and Rage was hissing and urging her to do painful things to Forster. Outwardly, Raven quirked a brow. Her monotone voice did not even hint at her discomfort as she replied, "I'm Slade's lawyer."

Mr. Forster laughed, but his guards seemed unsure of whether to join in. He motioned to the suited man on his left, who put his own briefcase on the table and unlocked it to show it packed full of important-looking documents.

They simultaneously pushed their cases across the table.

"It was a pleasure doing business with you," the dark girl muttered once the prize was in her hand. Forster had an aged, lopsided grin on his face as he said, "Why don't you stay awhile? You can mingle with my associates outside, have a few drinks. As the kids say these days, hang out."

"I really must be getting back to my previous duties," Raven said quickly, standing and forcing herself not to slip into a glare. The man feigned too much disappointment in her opinion.

Before he could argue with her further, the lights flickered in the room. It went pitch black for several seconds and surprised screams came from the penthouse. When the lights came back on, the guards all had guns drawn, Forster was clutching the briefcase to his body, and Raven was gone.

.

Raven phased through the casino roof and stood hidden behind a blinking sign. She set the briefcase to the side and let her hair down, taking a moment to calm her emotions as Rage hissed and sputtered in a corner of her mind. The girl ignored Rage's malicious ranting and instead focused her attention on the city skyline. Halfway across the sea of lights, Raven saw the Wayne Co. building, still with one letter damaged. Raven couldn't help but smirk at her doing, but her smile dropped when she saw the large W start to flicker and spark. Two silhouettes could barely be seen darting in front of it.

Raven picked up the briefcase and flew off towards the building. She opened her mind to Slade, only to find that he was impatiently waiting for her.

_"I wasn't expecting you to be so slow about it,"_ he chided.

_"Well, it would've been rude of me not to stay and mingle like Mr. Forster wanted,"_ she replied casually. The girl could sense Slade was not amused, so she turned serious. _"There's something going on at the Wayne building that I wanna check out before I come home."_ She waited for an outright prohibition.

_"Don't be long,"_ was his reply. Raven's focused turned entirely to his permissive attitude as she landed on the roof behind the Wayne sign and almost did not see two figures dart at her from the side.

Raven jumped back barely fast enough to avoid being grabbed by attackers her age. One was a girl with large angel wings, the other she knew as Kyd Wykkyd. The dark girl waited for them to make the first move, but they stayed a safe distance away, expectantly.

"You're the one who started the signal, right?" asked the girl with the angel wings, fluttering next to her partner. Kyd Wykkyd folded his arms across his chest and both stared at Raven.

"I just came over to investigate when I saw you causing trouble," Raven replied evenly. She couldn't help but arch her brow in confusion as the two newcomers exchanged glances.

"You destroyed the first letter here, right?" the angel demanded as she pointed to the broken N in Wayne. Raven flushed slightly. "Well, we responded. I don't know why Cheshire isn't here doing her job herself, but whatever. What's the news?"

Raven completely forgot her fighting stance and instead devoted all her energy to trying to figure out these strangers. Emotionally, they were nearly as confused as she was.

"Look, if Cheshire sent you in her place, then she has good news, yeah? She found him, right?" prodded the angel. Kyd Wykkyd mirrored her expectant expression, but kept quiet. Before Raven could sputter a reply, all three heard something from overhead and saw a large dark shape glide down to a nearby rooftop.

"It's the bat!" the angel gasped. Kyd Wykkyd began carving a dark rift in the air as his partner turned back to Raven. "Tell Cheshire to come herself next time and finish her own job for once. The Mistress is done with her excuses." And with that both of them escaped into the portal. Raven followed their lead and let herself be engulfed in her shadow bird to fly her back to Jump City.

.

Raven phased into Slade's attic hideout to find him standing at the large windows, his back to her. She threw the briefcase in his direction and it clattered to the ground nowhere near him.

"What is going on?!" she shrieked. All the diagrams on the table in the middle of the room grew black and flew into the air, dancing downward like specks in a snowglobe. Slade turned to her, eyeing her dangerously.

"Calm yourself." But she stomped forward and the middle table flipped upside down all on its own. Rage cackled, urging her on.

"Too many secrets!" Raven growled as cabinet doors began rattling. Down the hall, room doors began slamming open and closed. "You claim you don't trust me when you send me on these _important_ missions! But you're treating me more like a pawn than an apprentice!"

"Raven, get a hold of your emotions!" barked Slade, standing his ground. He balked slightly when the wall of windows was suddenly engulfed in shadow. When threatening cracking noises started, Slade pulled a small device from his belt and sighed. "This is your choice, my dear." He pushed the single button. Immediately electricity shot from Raven's necklace, shooting her with as much voltage as a taser and forcing her to her knees. She gasped and clawed at her neck, but didn't have the power to remove the offending weapon. The girl dropped onto her side, shaking, as Slade approached. He crouched next to her and lifted her into a sitting position by the back of her neck.

"You've been a live wire recently, and although I can admire recklessness to a certain extent, I detest disrespect." He lifted her face to within inches of his mask. "I have no need for an apprentice who constantly questions my commands. Do this again, and I will break you."

All Raven could do was shiver from the shock, no power to react physically or verbally. Mentally, however, Rage took the foreground, shouting everything from obscenities to _Betrayal!_, but all of which only Raven heard. Slade freed her neck only to slip one arm behind her back and the other one under her knees to carry her slowly down the hall and into her room. He laid her in her own bed, informed her quietly that they would talk about this in the morning, and left her in the dark. Left her to Rage.

..

**a.n. **Wow. Wooooow. I haven't updated this in forever. o_o No excuse whatsoever, but all my apologies. I'm still interested in this story... I just have to remember where I was going with it. Woow.


	6. When the cat's away

**Chapter 5**

Speedy nodded automatically, flipping through different screens on the Titans' main computer, as he listened to Bumblebee rant on about being stuck researching a mystery group no one had heard of.

"All I'm sayin' is I didn't come aaall this way to be bossed around by some Batman-wannabe in a cape. We could be doing all this back at our own tower and avoid Mama Bird's almost hourly check-ins. S'all I'm sayin'." Speedy continued to nod. When he gave no verbal reply, Bumblebee took out her communicator and signaled Aqualad. "Hay. Y'done yet? We're gonna need help here." Amidst the static, she could make out that Aqualad was on his way home, but he was traveling from the Indian Ocean, so it would take him awhile.

X walked in through a side door as Bumblebee hooked her communicator on her belt.

"East, how goes the search?" he asked amicably, hopping over the back of the couch to find a seat. Speedy finally snapped back to reality.

"Slow. We're trying to check all of Jinx's old teammates to see who she got this information from, and that's—"

"Nunya business," Bee interrupted. She turned to stare at X, a hand on her hip. "You're not a Titan, and Robin said to be careful what kindsa stuff we tell you. He don't trust you all that much."

X quirked a brow. "Is that so?" He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, staring intently at Bee. "And do you always follow Robin's orders so diligently?" The girl gave an indignant bob of her head, but X continued before she could retort. "See, I figured a strong Titan like yourself could function independently from Robin and form her own conclusions about tower crashers, like myself, who've been a part of all this intelligence-gathering business since about day one."

"Boy, if I knew you, I'd have my own conclusions. But I don't know you, so I'm siding with Robin on this one." And she went back to her computer searching with a dignified air. X chuckled.

"Right… side with Boy Wonder when he's keeping you here on some fool's mission." The thief hopped back over the couch and meandered toward the kitchen area to begin helping himself to the fridge.

Speedy suddenly straightened. "Check this out. Mammoth was spotted leaving the docks last night, and early this morning Kyd Wykkyd and Angel from that Brotherhood fight appeared there."

"I'd call that a lead. Let's go." Bee and Speedy hurried for the main door and Bee paused long enough to smirk at X, "Fool's mission, huh?"

Once they were gone, X wandered over to the large computer, sub sandwich in hand, and languidly began deleting the most recent searches.

.

Raven's head was throbbing when she woke up in the late morning. She had fallen asleep to Rage's low, constant muttering, and now those were the only thoughts circulating in her head, even though Rage was resting. The girl rubbed her eyes forlornly before noticing she was still in the suit from last night, even still wearing the necklace-weapon. With a huff Raven unhooked it and threw it into the nearest wall before consoling her neck. There was too much going on in her head to meditate; the only thing that would successfully calm her mind was answers from Slade. So she stumbled out of bed to find him.

Raven checked the main room and the work room in vain and ended up outside the door to his study at the end of the hall. She pounded on the door a couple of times, which did nothing for her headache. A couple seconds later Slade appeared from the door behind her, exiting the makeshift brig.

"Look who's up," he greeted. One of Raven's eyes twitched. He surveyed her swiftly before motioning toward the main room, saying, "What, no morning tea?"

They walked silently to the main space and Raven noticed everything she had terrorized the night before had been fixed. The table was righted, the maps and diagrams were back in place, and all the cupboard doors and drawers were closed. Without mentioning anything, Raven went to work preparing her teacup.

They remained silent for several minutes, Slade pacing slowly around his planning table and Raven pouring her tea. She tentatively reached out to try to sense his mood, but felt nothing, as usual. It's not that he wasn't feeling anything, it was that he kept his emotions under control better than she herself could. Raven could not yet bypass his barrier erected over the years.

Finally he acknowledged her staring at him. "My dear, you are proficient at forcing my hand. You claim I treat you like a pawn, but your growing insubordination limits your range of freedom." He stopped circling the table once he reached the far side and leaned his elbows on the tabletop. "I also don't inform you of every detail of my plans in case you ever get compromised on a job."

"Since when have I ever been compromised?" Raven asked, scowling. Rage began stirring in the back of her mind for the first time that morning.

"You haven't… yet. I practice precaution."

"I've been with you nearly a year," the girl argued, her voice starting to rise. "I've sufficiently proven myself to you in combat and in loyalty and—" She cut herself off, not quite knowing what point she was heading toward.

Slade tilted his head. "My dear, I've trusted people only to be betrayed after decades of companionship. My trust takes a lifetime to earn."

"Mine doesn't." For once her reply was soft, barely more vocal than an exhale. Slade straightened.

"Maybe I was wrong to think I had broken you of your team mentality. This isn't the Titans where you share all your information with each other. This is _me_ giving _you_ orders and you following my command. I owe you no answers."

Despite Rage suggesting cruel threats, Raven kept her words as far from disrespectful as possible. "As long as we have a prisoner here, things that happen with her should involve me. I _live_ here, after all. And you better…" she huffed slightly, "I mean, I want to know why you've taken such an interest in her."

Slade chuckled. "I care nothing about Cheshire. But I have all the interest in the world in the one who sent her."

Raven waited in silence for Slade to continue before prodding, "Who sent her?"

"_That_, my dear apprentice, does not involve you." The man made his way over to the windows, taking a sweeping gaze of the city. Raven sipped her tea as she watched him, reaching out again to try to feel his emotions. And again she hit the brick wall.

"Raven, I have a job for you." Slade said at last. "I'm, going to be out… traveling… on business, and I need you to hold down the fort." He glanced at her over his shoulder. "Keep up your training, and don't forget to feed the prisoner." And with that he headed for the hallway.

The girl just watched him as he walked by. Her first response to this unusual remark was, "Um?" But after she gathered her thoughts, she called out, "How long will you be gone?"

"However long it takes," he threw back. Not ten minutes later he was gone, leaving the hideout all to Raven for the first time since she got there.

Rage cackled.

.

Robin and Argent entered the Titans main room after unsuccessfully interrogating old acquaintances of Cheshire in the city's maximum security prison.

"Yeh, we have prisons like that, too," Argent mentioned, "but we don't put ours right in the middle of the city."

Robin silently scanned the room. "BumbleBee and Speedy must've found something," he mused mostly to himself before marching to the computer and switching it on. Argent dropped onto the couch, clearly put out.

"What if she's moved on to another city? Her tracks are beyond cold."

"No," Robin shook his head. "She's been leaving an obvious trail halfway around the world… she wouldn't suddenly disappear into the shadows like this."

.

Cyborg, BeastBoy and Starfire were all in Cyborg's car, driving through Jump City, as Cyborg tried to trace Raven through the car's computer. Starfire was safely in the backseat so she couldn't press any dashboard buttons, but BeastBoy just took her place.

"Ooh, what's this do? Is that new? This looks fun!"

"BB, I'm serious, you touch one more thing and I'm kicking you out on the curb," Cyborg griped, smacking the changeling's hand away from the dashboard.

"Look friends!" Starfire called as she leaned between the boys and pointed to the dashboard screen. There was a security video from Gotham playing, showing footage of pedestrian traffic from a camera outside the casino street.

"That looks like Rae," Cyborg decided.

"But she's wearing a suit. I don't think Raven would ever wear a suit," Beast Boy replied, crossing his arms. "And besides, Raven doesn't gamble."

Cyborg shifted gears and stomped the accelerator to the floor. "Hang on, y'all. We're taking a trip to Gotham."

.

There had never been much lighting in Cheshire's prison room, but all of a sudden, everything seemed a bit darker. The light from the tinted windows dimmed, the shadows darkened, and a patch of absolute blackness on the floor began… bubbling. Raven, back in her blue hooded cloak, rose from the floor, two sets of eyes glowing red. Cheshire gave a gasp and pulled her knees to her chest, curling up on her messy cot. There was no trace of smugness on her face, which frustrated Raven ever so slightly because she was hoping to have a reason to bring Cheshire down a peg or two. In fact, the green-clad foreigner was positively trembling.

"Wh-what do you want?"

Raven opened her mouth and a threatening hiss came out. She kept growing from the bubbling pool of darkness and loomed over her victim. From the shadows where her cape parted writhed black tendrils. When the hissing stopped, Raven spoke with what sounded like multiple voices. "You're going to tell me everything."

**a.n.** ….. … Hooooow did I not update this for nearly a year and a half? Especially since I had this chapter done for like… ever. =/ Excuse #1: I joined the Army, took nearly a year for training, now I'm actually in the real army, and I'm getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan this December. No joke. So we'll see how good updates come after this. XD


	7. Self reflection

**Chapter 6**

Beast Boy and Starfire were probably the worst team to be sent into a casino of all places to try to scrounge up information. The adults wouldn't take Beast Boy seriously, not like he was one to act mature in a crowd, and Starfire was too polite and too child-like for the remaining sober gamblers to pay attention to her questions. They were quickly shooed out the front doors of the third casino they tried, as the security guards gave them the same demand of: "Go find your parents, kids."

They trudged back to the T-car, parked outside along the curb, which Cyborg refused to leave. He was currently sitting in the driver's seat, clutching the steering wheel possessively and staring down a red-vested valet who was poised ready to leap for the car keys if Cyborg set foot outside the vehicle.

"Strike three," sighed Beast Boy as he climbed into the back seat. Starfire slid into the passenger seat and looked identically glum. Cyborg gave a groan, bracing himself. With a struggle, he slowly—_slowly_—took the keys out of the ignition and handed them to Starfire.

"Looks like I'm going in. Whatever you do, DON'T let anyone who's not a Titan in this car. Y'got it? She's my baby. Don't let anything happen to her." Cyborg seemed to be cursing his judgment as he exited the vehicle. The red-vested valet gave an irritated stomp of his foot when it was clear Cyborg was not handing over the T-car. Starfire blinked curiously at the set of keys in her hand.

Beast Boy gave a yawn and laced his fingers behind his head, stretching out in the back. "Eh, I give him five minutes."

"Cyborg is proficient at questioning," Starfire piped up. She gazed at the casino Cyborg chose, completely oblivious to the red-vested valet glaring at her, arms folded across his chest and impatiently tapping his foot. "The Lucky 7s sounds like a promising choice."

"Five minutes."

.

Raven came to on the floor in the main room, crumpled in a heap. She blinked as if that could clear the dense fog she felt in her mind. After several seconds of not being able to recollect anything that happened since threatening Cheshire in the brig, worry surged through her chest. Random objects in the room grew black and shook viciously. What knocked her out? How long had she been out? What caused her to forget everything that happened? How did she get all the way out here?

_Calm_.

Raven blinked. It wasn't so much of a voice as it was a feeling. A small warmth in the corner of her mind. All the shadow faded from the objects in the room.

_Calm __down, __Raven_. A presence. A whisper. The girl felt too heavy to jump to her feet and look around the room like she wanted to. Instead she limply turned her head about. She was most definitely alone. This was not the voice of Rage that she had become accustomed to.

"Who's… what's going… hello?"

_We're __waiting, __Raven._ The warm feeling seemed to pulse in her mind, creeping slowly out of the corner, consuming the dense fog as it grew. Raven pushed herself into a meditative position. In another corner of her mind unaffected by the fog, she wondered if Cheshire was still locked up or if she had escaped. Simultaneously the desire to check panged through to the surface of her thoughts. But somehow, Raven knew this was more important.

She closed her eyes and focused like Slade had taught her.

_Azarath__…_ The voice whispering in Raven's mind startled her eyes open. More voices joined in, _Metrion__…_ Raven took a deep, steadying breath.

"Zinthos."

Almost at once, the world fell away. The floor fell down into oblivion, the walls and windows peeled away, the ceiling flew up into nothingness. Raven was standing in a place she hadn't seen in a long, long time. The space was an eerie shade of dark red blending in to blue blending in to a patchwork of other colors. Barren earth hung in the void, connected by narrow rocky bridges. Scraggly, dead trees dotted the larger chunks of rock. It was the most depressing place imaginable, and Raven felt immediately at peace. Peace and safety inside her own mind.

Home.

She had often visited this place in her meditations over a year ago. She arched her brow at a flash of color on one of the rock bridges. A strong purple. It contrasted greatly against the deep yet drab colors of the space. The purple floated closer until Raven could make out the shape of a person. Herself. One of her voices in a strong purple cloak.

This purple Raven had a determined expression and even though Raven knew this purple manifestation was no threat, she felt incredibly intimidated, and slightly embarrassed, like Purple was here to name all her flaws and there was nothing Raven could do to hide them.

Purple stopped within arm's reach of Raven and dropped her hood. She looked like a mirror image.

_It's __been __awhile, __Raven. __Do y__ou __remember __me?_ Purple smiled sweetly. Raven blinked as she concentrated, thinking, trying to remember. The fog was still thick in her mind, an annoying block keeping her from passing into her memories.

_Calm __down, __Raven. __You're __too __worried __about __Cheshire._ Purple took a deep breath and Raven felt like she was supposed to do the same. As she took a look through her mind, she realized she still remembered years, even a decade ago. The fog in her mind was only blocking the last… however long it was… the time Raven entered Cheshire's room until the moment she woke up in the main room. Yet Raven put so much emphasis on it, was so worried about it, had so much emotion wrapped up in discovering the cause of this, that she felt like the fog was trying to hide everything. It was actually not that powerful.

Raven took another look at Purple. She gazed upon her with the recognition of an old companion. "Friendly." Purple closed her eyes as if wincing. Somehow, words were out of place here.

_I'm glad you remember. You've become pretty close with one of our sisters lately, and we were worried you had forgotten us._

Raven looked around for more colors, more manifestations, even the red one. But it was just her and Friendly. However, this manifestation had grown since the last time Raven saw her, just as Raven had grown and matured. Purple seemed to have an aura of compassion about her which, although it didn't calm Raven, it dulled her worry like a painkiller.

_What's __going __on? _Raven asked her. _Why __now?_

_Because __you __used __to __listen __to __all __of __us. __Now __you __only __entertain __Rage. __You know this is dangerous, Raven. This is what happens when you become entirely consumed by just one emotion._

_What? What happened?_

.

Bumblebee and Speedy were on top of a storage unit on the docks surveying the area around their target: an old warehouse across the way. Their research revealed that Mammoth had been seen there a day ago, while Angel and Kyd Wykkyd were seen this morning. The Titans figured they might even still be there.

Speedy dropped the compact binoculars from his eyes. "Clear." Bee shrank to the size of a hand and buzzed above Speedy's shoulder.

"I'll go check inside, then give you a signal when it's clear." And she zipped off.

"How am I supposed to even see your signal?" cried the archer before tiredly propping his head up by a hand.

.

X watched the scene unfurl between the members of Titans East as he comfortably sat in the second-story window of a boat repair building across the way, next door to the warehouse under surveillance. He slipped a hand-sized hard drive into a pocket of his utility belt and secured it. He vented a chuckle.

"Best of luck finding anything."

.

To keep from falling asleep, Speedy had taken to playing with an arrow from his quiver. He was currently weaving it through the air making fighter jet noises when a green figure caught his attention. He peeked over the roof of the storage unit to watch a black-haired girl stumbling over herself in her haste toward the warehouse entrance. Speedy did not know how she managed to stay on her feet with the amount of trouble it seemed to cost her. He also couldn't believe his luck, since the girl everyone had such a cow about was wandering right into his hands.

Speedy selected an arrow with a round tip and shot it at Cheshire's feet. Upon impact, gas wafted out and just as quickly as Cheshire noticed it, she was crashing to the ground, unconscious. Speedy gave the area a final check for enemies before dexterously climbing to the ground and bounding over to his victim.

.

X smacked a hand over his masked face, groaning, "You've GOT to be kidding me!" His hand fell limply. "I guess this is why Mistress never liked Cheshire…" He checked each pouch in his utility belt continuing to grumble to himself as if it helped the situation. "…Always cleaning up after these amateurs… Don't know how to do anything… Second time this week… Shoulda got a bigger belt…"

.

Bumblebee flew out the front door and stopped short when she saw Speedy crouched only a few yards away from the warehouse entrance. A second later she morphed back into her human size and ran to his side.

"I leave for two seconds and you find Cheshire? Y'coulda said something!"

"I woulda if I'd needed help. I had everything under control, obviously," Speedy replied with an arrogant bob of his head. On one knee, he was at the perfect height as Bee smacked him upside the head. Speedy gave an indignant grunt and rubbed his head.

"Well. what'd _you_ find in there?"

"Nothing," Bee said in an irritated sigh. "I think we were a couple hours too late, because there was no sign of any suspicious use."

"Maybe we just got the wrong target?" suggested Speedy. With an effort, he hoisted Cheshire over one shoulder and staggered under the unexpected weight. "Girl's gotta cut back on the eating…"

"Naw, it's looked _too_ clean. Like someone went outta their way to cover tracks. I think they were expecting this and moved to a different hideout… or whatever they were using this place for." Bumblebee put her hands on her hips and scanned the area again, searching for anything out of the ordinary.

"It's not like it was all for nothing. Let's get Cheshire back to the tower and—" Speedy was cut short when several pellets bounced to the ground around the pair's feet and exploded with a gas that grew into an encompassing cloud. The two Titans choked and stumbled to get out. Bee was the first to break through the thick cloud, eyes blind with tears, and from somewhere behind her she heard Speedy give a sharp cry of surprise. She put more distance between herself and the tear gas and wiped her eyes. With blurry vision, she could make out a dark figure carrying a green figure and climbing up the side of the warehouse.

"Not so fast!" she shouted, coughing. She grabbed her B-stingers, aimed as best she could, and shot repeatedly. Bumblebee only stopped shooting when she heard a shout of pain followed by a loud _thud_ on the ground, because she certainly didn't see the stranger fall.

Bumblebee wiped her eyes again and advanced on the dark stranger, steering clear of the dissipating tear gas. The blurry newcomer hobbled to his feet and began climbing the wall again, this time leaving Cheshire behind. Despite her limited vision, Bee was about to chase after him, but a groan from Speedy reminded her of her priorities. She holstered her B-stingers and hurried over to her teammate who was slowly pushing himself up off the ground. Speedy choked on the remaining gas as he took a knee.

"Who… who _was_ that?" he wheezed. "Something hit me from behind…" Bumblebee peeled a red and stretchy device off of his back and showed it to him. It was a large "x." They both searched the area for the skull-masked thief, but as expected saw nothing. As Speedy staggered to his feet, Bee hoisted Cheshire into her arms.

"I thought X was on our side…" Speedy muttered, rubbing his back.

"I'd rather ponder that back in the Titans tower than wait around _here_ to ask him myself. Let's go."

.

Raven followed Friendly along the rocky bridges. At the first intersection, they met another manifestation, this one dressed in yellow and wearing glasses.

_It's __about __time __you __got __here,_ Yellow smirked. She, too, had a knowing look about her.

_Intelligent,_ Raven realized after several moments. _Are __all __of __you __coming?_

_Not __all. _Intelligent replied. _Just the ones capable of sorting this out. We're going to help you through the fog, Raven._ She pushed her brown coke bottle glasses back in place and jerked her head for the others to follow down Intelligent's path.

The three walked in silence with Yellow leading the way toward a stone archway. The manifestations halted a safe distance away from the arch and looked back at Raven.

_You're going to have to come to terms with Rage,_ Intelligent thought, her piercing stare barreling into Raven. _You've given her far too much liberty in this matter, allowing her to surface and take control. _

_She __now __feels __entitled,_ added Friendly. _She's claimed the space beyond as her domain… But we'll be there with you, Raven._ She pulled her purple hood back over her head and turned to face the arch again.

Raven didn't know why, but she was almost nervous to confront Rage now. Or rather, she was apprehensive about finding out what had happened once Rage overtook her in Cheshire's prison. Raven took a deep, steadying breath.

A motivated laugh echoed from somewhere above the trio. The manifestations looked up languidly while Raven snapped all around, searching for the source. A green-clad girl was standing on top of the arch, fists on her hips.

"Yeah! 'Bout time we put a foot down, Raven!" With extra oomph, Green jumped from the arch and landed on her feet between the girls and the gateway. "I've been waiting for this showdown for days!" Yellow rolled her eyes and Purple shook her head.

_Brave,_ Raven almost sighed with relief. Green beckoned with a swing of her whole arm.

"Let's do this!" And without waiting for anyone else, she spun on a heel and charged through the archway, disappearing from sight once she passed through the portal. The other two watched Raven. One more deep breath and the dark girl followed. The space around the rocky path changed on the other side of the arch. It looked darker, from what Raven could see through the fog. The cloud started off thin near the portal, but grew denser and colder further into the domain. She took a couple steps forward, waving her hands in front of her. Raven couldn't even see past her elbows the fog was getting so thick.

_Now __what?_ Raven wondered. She had never encountered anything like this in her mind before.

_Now we find the source and squelch it,_ explained Intelligent. Raven couldn't see any of her manifestations, but she could feel Friendly and Intelligent's presence right behind her, and Brave running around recklessly somewhere up ahead. The girl could also feel the heavy presence of Rage, owning everything about this plane. It was the familiar feeling of a weight in her core that made her envision negative thoughts and reactions to everything that floated through her mind. The overwhelming urge to shut the world out and brood in a safe, dark place possessed and throbbed in her mind.

Just as she gritted her teeth and her head sunk sulkily, a firm hand took hold of her shoulder. Friendly was there with her, and just her touch was enough to weaken Rage's impact.

_We won't make you do this alone,_ she informed the girl, sparking a wave of comfort to ripple from Friendly's hand across Raven's body. The dark girl gave a nod and took another stride forward, only to step on something large and squeaky. Brave was low-crawling the opposite direction.

"Just securing the area. Carry on, folks." And Green continued crawling.

Intelligent and Friendly steadied Raven on either side as the girl raised a hand and closed her eyes. _Azarath, __Metrion, __Zinthos!_ The fog directly in front of the trio scattered completely, leaving a haze starting several yards in front of them, thickening back into the fog. A small memory floated to the surface of Raven's memory then. She could now recall Cheshire trembling with fear as Raven first entered the room. She could remember herself demanding for her to admit everything and Cheshire just shaking like a leaf on her cot. Then she saw herself reach out with shadows and grab hold of Cheshire's head, successfully muffling her screams. Then she remembered feeling Rage trying to leave her body and flow into Cheshire.

Raven blinked. _What was Rage trying to do? I've communicated with other people's minds before, but I've never entered their heads to _know_ what they know. I don't think I even know how to do that… _

_You can develop almost any ability through practice,_ came Intelligent's voice. _But __currently, __we __can't __do __that._

_Isn't __that __what __Rage __tried __to __do, __though?_

_Tried,_ huffed Friendly. Even though Raven closed her eyes and concentrated, she couldn't remember what happened after that. Intelligent pointed to the fog still drifting across the rocky path ahead.

_The __rest __of __the __story __is __still __hidden._

_And __Rage?_ asked Raven, glancing back over her shoulder at Yellow.

_Waiting __farther __in._

.

Robin rushed into the main room, halfway through saying, "Okay, what's so important that I needed to drop everything and get here?" Argent was several paces behind him and nearly ran into his back when he unexpectedly screeched to a halt at the top of the stairs.

Bumblebee and Speedy stood on either side of Cheshire, who was clutching her arms across herself and glancing about the room nervously. Occasionally a strong shiver would rack her body, but other than that the captive kept still and silent.

Argent's mouth dropped. "…_How_?" she cried. Robin was down the steps and in front of Cheshire in a heartbeat.

"Where'd you find her?"

"Down by the docks as we were checking out a lead," Bee explained. "We might know some of the kids she's working with… and somethin' crazy happened to us." With a glance at Speedy, the archer pulled out a long, floppy red "x" from a pouch on his belt.

"We got attacked on the way out, and we're pretty sure only one kid around here uses weapons like this," said Bumblebee with a bob of her head toward the device. Robin gritted his teeth as Argent popped up behind his shoulder.

"What's this, now?" she questioned, glancing blankly at each Titan. Robin pulled out his communicator.

"Cyborg, come in. What's your position?"

"Hey man," came the static-laced response, "we're kinda in Gotham at the moment…"

"Get back to the Tower. Now." And he returned the communicator to his belt.

"Really," Argent spoke up, "what's going on? Who uses this?" She stared at the red "x" with a puzzled expression.

"I guess X has his own reasons for trying to help the search," muttered Robin, eyes narrowing. "I knew he couldn't be completely trusted, but I never thought it would come to something like this." His gaze shifted to Cheshire.

"Where've you _been_ for the past few days?" he asked with a tone made gruff from the news about X. The shivering girl shrunk slightly under his glare.

"I've… I've been locked up b-by th-the one I was looking f-for. And some girl… so dark. Too dark, I just w-wanted to scream, b-but couldn't. So dark," whined Cheshire as she hugged her arms tighter. The Titans exchanged glances.

"But where were you locked up?" questioned Argent from behind Robin still.

"I don't know. A room. Plain. Dark, but a normal dark. N-not like…" Cheshire seemed to just dissolve into shudders. Speedy put his hands on her arms to steady her and suggested moving their captive to the large couch.

"Who captured you?" asked Bumblebee once she was settled on the semicircular sofa. After Robin and Argent's demanding approaches led Cheshire to terrifying memories, Bumblebee tried a soothing tone while laying a hand on Cheshire's shoulder for good measure.

"Some girl my age. But Two-face mainly talked to me. I don't know how many days that went on for," Cheshire said and blinked as if trying to recall a specific number. "Then there was just her. So dark, four red eyes and… trying to get into my head!" Cheshire held her head at the memories, as if still fighting her attacker for control. "Then everything goes black, I don't know if it was her shadows or if I really was knocked out, but when I could see again I was just in the city, lying in some alley. I found my way back to the docks from there… and I'm just tired of being kidnapped already!"

"Why the docks?" Argent questioned. She was leaning over the back of the couch next to Cheshire with her elbows resting along the top of the seat.

"It's… it's where everyone is. It's safe for me." The foreign girl brought a hand wearily across her face. "I've never been more terrified in my life… it was just _so_ dark."

Robin pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He remembered the last time a girl with four red eyes attacked someone with darkness.

.

Raven had cleared more fog with the help of Yellow and Purple, Green still pretending to be helpful somewhere in the background. Raven now could recall that once Rage could not enter Cheshire's mind and read her thoughts, she held the prisoner by her neck with one large shadow hand. Rage demanded to know why Slade had taken such an interest in her. There was no hesitation on Cheshire's part— she immediately began stuttering and choking out an answer, gripping the shadow around her neck. She tried to explain that she had been searching for Slade, because the Mistress she worked for wanted to know his whereabouts. Somehow, through all of Rage's hissing, she asked the location of Cheshire's boss. The prisoner's first answer: somewhere along the east cost, earned her a scream from Rage, before the four-eyed demon flung her into the opposite wall. Cheshire curled into a tight ball and tried to amend that by screaming to find Angel and Kyd Wykkyd, who would know better, and who have been to the Mistress' lair before.

Everything else was shrouded in fog. Raven rubbed her forehead and sighed. This concentration to clear her mind was giving her a dull headache.

_How did Rage ever get so much control over my mind? My powers?_

_You let her fester unchecked,_ Intelligent replied, pushing her glasses back in place. _You lent her your ear as she fed you what you wanted to hear about the world._

_The things Rage told me were _not_ what I wanted to hear,_ Raven snapped back, glaring at Yellow.

Friendly squeezed her shoulder. _Raven, you wanted a reason to feel negative emotions, as a way to cope with the situations at hand. Rage gave you the excuse you needed._

_And as she continued telling you these things, you allowed her the freedom to roam about your mind,_ added Intelligent. _Now she has more power over you than you expected._

Raven stared down the fog in front of her. Somewhere hiding in all of that was Rage, waiting. Raven set her jaw with determination. _This is still _my_ mind and _she_ has to answer to _me.

"Yeah!" Brave shouted, popping up behind the trio with one fist pumped in the air. "Full frontal ATTACK! Let's DO THIS!"

..

**a.n.** Weekend reading, yay! So starting next week, I have a two week break, two weeks back at work, then I deploy. So we'll see how updates fare after this. D: I figure Raven will wrap up everything in her mind next chapter so she can finally start looking for Slade. I miss him in this story already. Sadface. Brave is totally my favorite, btw.

P.S. When I uploaded this into the Doc Manager, all the italicized sentences were strung together like one long word. Apparently italics deletes any and all spaces. I tried fixing it, so if I missed anything, I'm sorry.


	8. Internal conflict

**Chapter 7**

Cyborg and his group were back in Titans Tower within an hour of Robin's call. They hurried into the main room just as Argent was leading Cheshire out the side door, taking her to one of the many guest rooms to clean up and just hide from such a judgmental crowd. Beast Boy stopped and pointed.

"Hey! Isn't that who you were looking for?"

It did not take long for Titans East to fill them in on what took place at the docks while Robin fiddled with the large computer. He brought up security footage of the docks to corroborate Bumblebee's story of X attacking them, but once the thief fled to the roof, the cameras lost track of him. Everyone else watched silently from the couch.

"Well this is completely unexpected," grunted Cyborg, rolling his eye. Next to him, Starfire nodded genuinely.

"Yes, he appeared so reformed!"

"So what it looks like so far," Bee spoke up, standing and starting to pace the floor between the couch and the computer, "is that Cheshire is working with Mammoth, Angel and them, and they all work under this big boss from out of town. Cheshire was on a mission to find this 'Two-face,' who most likely found out what she was up to and captured her to put a stop to it. Somehow, she got away and went back to her safehouse where everyone else was, except they were all gone."

"And it's safe to assume X scrubbed the place clean?" ventured Cyborg.

"He knew we had a lead on that warehouse and that both me and Speedy were gonna check it out," Bumblebee said with narrowing eyes. "I told him outright I didn't trust him, and yet I let him all around the room when we were doin' our part of the investigation." With a growl, she flung herself onto the couch to brood.

"Hey, it's okay," Beast Boy said in a chipper tone. "We were all duped."

Cyborg sat forward a little. "Okay, but is X working with these kids, or did he just tip them off to scram and cleaned up after them?"

"Cheshire could probably answer that for us," Robin replied from the computer. He still busied himself trying in vain to track X through all sorts of city cameras.

"Clearly, Cheshire ran into Raven. And where Raven was, Slade was probably close by," Cyborg said. "Is it safe to assume 'Two-face' is Slade?" All the Titans looked expectantly to Robin.

"I'd say so."

From one edge of the couch, Speedy leaned forward. "So what's the plan now, boss?"

"First and foremost: we change the passcodes to the tower."

.

_Azarath_ _Metrion_ _Zinthos!_

More fog dissipated from in front of the three girls and more memories came to Raven's mind. She saw that once Rage was tired of Cheshire whimpering in a ball on the ground, she grabbed her, flew through the nearest wall and deposited the hostage in the first alley they came to before returning to Slade's hideout. Raven could feel Rage had lost most of her mental control by then, and once Raven made it to the living room, Rage lost all dominance and receded into a corner of Raven's mind to recuperate.

Raven blinked the images away and glared at the remaining fog. It was so thin that Raven could make out a figure beyond, cloaked in red and lounging on a makeshift throne. She could feel the calming presences of Intelligence and Friendly behind her, keeping in check Raven's fury. She could also feel Brave's excitement and warmongering spurring her on.

With a wave of her hand, Raven banished the rest of the haze to find Rage smiling back, a malicious playfulness dancing in her four red eyes. One leg swung lazily over an arm of the throne, the other arm and seat of the throne were draped in Rage's red cloak.

_Well, well. Welcome to my domain,_ sneered Rage, languidly motioning across the barren landscape. _It's been ages since I've had company. _

"Hey!" shouted Green from somewhere behind. "You know Thursday's Tea Day. I always invite you and you never come!" Yellow shook her head and Purple rolled her eyes. Raven never took her sights off of Red.

_You don't get to claim anything in my mind, _Raven informed her curtly. Rage shifted and sat up straight. Raven could feel Rage seething in the corner of her mind. Red stood up silently and her hold on her domain in Raven's head seemed to intensify.

_Such seriousness,_ Rage began with a placid expression. _You're prepared for internal struggle while completely ignoring the real issue: your prisoner is gone and our master nowhere to be found._

_I'm dealing with what's at hand first._

_How do you know Cheshire hasn't already found him? Their paths are bound to cross again… out from under _your_ nose._ Rage cracked a grin. _Just _imagine—

_I'm not letting you play on my emotions anymore,_ Raven interrupted and Red's grin flickered.

_So be it. But drop the Starfire-like worldview. I don't know which one of your personalities is "denial," but you're not just an apprentice anymore._

Raven looked back at the two personifications behind her.

_It's not us,_ shrugged Intelligent, accompanied by Friendly shaking her head. Green finally joined them.

"Don't look at me. I'm the one who knows all the moves you never want to use!"

Raven turned back to Red, who glared from four eyes. The dark girl could feel Rage hungering to take over her mind once more, to feel the thrill of controlling everything. Raven knew there would be no peace with such a strong personality unhampered. Her expression hardened into resolve, and Rage took a step back as she felt the realization wash through Raven's mind.

Friendly and Intelligent laid their hands on Raven to assist as Raven shot her arms out, muttering her meditative incantation. Rage crossed her arms defensively, but could not stop large chains from breaking through the ground at her feet and growing like vines, circling Rage and pulling her down against the ground.

_If you want this to be your domain so bad, you can have it. It'll be your prison,_ Raven told her without any trace of superiority. _If the time comes I ever need you, I'll come find you._ Rage started hissing and sputtering, but Raven didn't stay to listen to her mingled pleas and threats. She returned through the portal followed by the three free manifestations.

_This will end up more a punishment for you than for her, _frowned Intelligent. _So much of your concentration will be needed to keep her chained._

"And the only thing Rage understands is violence… if she breaks free, you're gonna have to put the smackdown on her to keep the status quo." Brave looked rather excited about this concept.

_Thanks for your help,_ Raven said, looking at Purple and Yellow. Green was too busy with a sudden urge to knock out push-ups to notice.

_Go find Slade,_ Friendly told her with a smile. _He needs you about as much as you need him. _

Before Raven could reply, she was suddenly aware of her surroundings as they came rushing back to her: gravity and air and ambient noise. She opened her eyes to find herself still sitting on the main room floor. The wall of windows on the opposite side of the room showed night had long since swept through the city. All the buildings were lit up and in the distance Titans Tower outshone them all amidst the black bay. Raven's gaze shifted around the room and she saw two of her robots walking past on their path toward a door leading to the workshop.

"Stop!" she called to them. The pair halted and looked back at her. "New orders."

.

Early the next morning, Cyborg was crouching on the front step leading to the main entranceway of the Tower. There on the wall next to the door was the 9-digit button pad with a scanner below it. All Titan communicators acted like garage-door openers when held up to the scanner and unlocked the main door. Cyborg was busy changing the frequency of this scanner when Robin stepped out of the Tower.

"Hey, I didn't get to ask you guys earlier, but did you find any leads on Raven?" the boy wonder asked, leaning against the doorway.

Cyborg didn't stop or even pause what he was doing. "Yep, she made an appearance at one of the biggest casinos in Gotham apparently to do business." He started inputting a new code on the button pad. "But she didn't stay long and people who saw her enter never saw her leave. All they know is the owner of the casino talked to her privately before coming out and joining all his penthouse guests."

Robin's fists started shaking and he quickly folded his arms across his chest. "I just wish we weren't finding out through bits and pieces. I want to know how… what she's up to."

"And if Rae wanted us to know, she'd not be lurkin' around like she is." Cyborg finished the code, the scanner beeped cheerfully in acceptance, and Cyborg stood up. "You can't help people who don't want to be helped. It's been over half a year already… she's gone."

Robin's frown couldn't be deeper.

"And I know you were closest to her than all of us, but if you keep up this obsession over finding her, it'll eat up all your time and energy. Maybe for the time being, we should stop trying to follow Raven so much and focus on all the Titans that are still here."

"I hear what you're saying," grunted the leader, "but for as long as X's been on the other side, he's been chasing Raven, too. What if this 'mistress' we're looking for is after Raven, too?"

"Then Rae's done a great job at avoiding us all."

.

As much as Argent argued and pleaded to be the one questioning Cheshire, Bumblebee wouldn't hear of it. Argent was kept out in the hall, left to her agonizing pacing like some kind of sentinel.

Bumblebee sat on the couch in the guest bedroom given to Cheshire. The curtains were all drawn back and half the windows were open, letting in a pleasant breeze along with the morning sunlight. Cheshire sat on the bed hugging her knees to her chest and gazing out over the bay. She might not've even blinked in the last five minutes.

Bee continued to wait patiently. For as much as she would've liked to put on her bossy attitude and demand Cheshire answer her, Bee could instinctively read people, and she knew the best results would come from a soft approach. Another couple minutes passed.

Finally Cheshire turned her head back to the guest in the room. "What was the question?" She sounded in a daze and her eyes looked vacant, as if she still tried to stare over the bay while looking into the room.

"Who is the mistress you mentioned?"

Cheshire forced a shallow shrug. "I never saw her, I'm still pretty new to all this. Awhile ago I heard from… from a friend that someone was paying big money to anyone who could find some person of interest." Bee leaned forward when Cheshire rested her forehead on her knees for awhile. The green-clad girl gave a weak motivating huff before continuing, "My friend didn't take me to their headquarters, just some team room where some others who worked for mistress hung out, and they all got this video communication with mistress relaying all this information about the manhunt. I couldn't see her face in the video, and her voice was all scrambled. She was taking her precautions."

"Do you even know if 'mistress' is even a woman?" Bumblebee questioned once Cheshire relapsed into silence. A chuckle escaped the girl.

"Can't say I do. I just call her… him… it… that because everyone else does." She ran a hand through her hair to hold her bangs free from her face. "Mistress saw me that day, and expected me be in on the search just like everyone actually worked for her. She said if I did right, I could join the team. She sent us to all these different countries. I got booted to Australia. Figures no one would clue me in on procedures for working for mistress. She got _so_ mad at me that I'd never check in at the right times… at first I didn't know I had to check in at all." Her story faded into an exasperated sigh followed by a shake of her head to toss her bangs. Cheshire didn't look about ready to finish the recollection.

"So, Chesh, where does this mistress live?"

"I can't give you an address or nothing, but I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in New York."

.

Raven floated atop the building that housed the only headquarters she had ever known. She had tried meditating several times over that morning, but too many impatient thoughts were jostling for attention. While Rage was in control and interrogating Cheshire, the prisoner told her to find Angel or Kyd Wykkyd, because they would know more answers. The only way so far Raven knew of finding those two was to send a message: destroying a letter in the Wayne Co. neon sign in the city. Earlier that morning Raven sent out a couple of her droids to do just that. Not much later she could see smoke billowing from one of the taller towers in the heart of the city. She had instructed the two droids to wait nearby and watch for the villains-in-training. The two robots on the roof with her would let her know of any updates.

Until then Raven would just have to relax and try to mediate yet again. She closed her eyes and did not even try to smooth out her furrowed brow.

_Relax,_ came Intelligent's advice from somewhere behind all the pressing worries skirting through her mind, trying to influence her emotions. _If it works, it works. If not, we'll think of something else. Until then, Slade can take care of himself._

_Don't worry,_ added Friendly. _We miss him too!_

Raven's eyes snapped open and she glared over the city landscape. "Not helping."

_Worrying takes too much effort,_ came a whine from Sloth, the laziest of the voices. Sloth couldn't be bothered to come help Raven confront Rage earlier, as her plain brown cloak had been absent from the colors. The other personifications complained about her choice in color, but Sloth could never find the time nor the energy to change cloaks.

_And maybe we shouldn't be up here on top of a building where EVERYONE can see us…_ mumbled Timid, the gray cloaked one who had been a little too nervous at the thought of a confrontation with Rage to help.

"It's calming up here," Raven shot back. A fresh gust of wind caught her cape and let it fly behind her. "Besides, who will be looking in _this_ direction when _that_ is happening over there?" She glanced with the tiniest glow of pride at the smoke wafting from the newest destroyed letter in the "WAYNE" sign. After her first destruction of the N, then the other two villains short-circuiting the W, and now her robots destroying a third letter, it just read "AY" through the smoke.

.

A beeping came from the Titans' main computer in the living room, joined by a whine from Beast Boy who was just trying to enjoy his breakfast cereal on the couch. Argent stood near him behind the couch, waiting as Speedy pulled up different screens trying to locate the problem.

"Cereal at this time? It's almost time for dinner!" she commented in passing. Beast Boy nearly choked on his spoon.

"What? Stuff in Australia must be sooo backwards, 'cause dinner's not for another like, eight hours." He spun halfway around to inspect if she was pulling his leg or not. He couldn't tell right off hand and suspiciously ate his cereal, still inspecting.

"Dinner's what you have in the middle of the day, silly," she chirped.

"I think you mean lunch," corrected the changeling with narrowing eyes. "Unless you really DO eat dinner in the middle of the day and then sleep until breakfast, which would be our dinner. Because we eat dinner right before bed."

"You lost me."

Starfire and Robin rushed into the main room to join Speedy, too focused on the main screen to hear Beast Boy mutter, "I'm never visiting Australia."

"What's going on?" demanded the boy wonder. Speedy finished bringing up the right screens and the Wayne Co building took up most of the picture.

"Oh, y'know, same ol', same 'ol," Speedy shrugged. The Titans could almost make out a figure or two amid the smoke.

"Is that a person caught in the debris?" Starfire asked as everyone leaded forward and squinted.

.

The robot closest to Raven gave an alarm-like beep and nodded. Raven gave a smirk, and could feel Brave inside whooping and spurring her on to do great things. The dark girl enveloped herself and the two robots in a giant shadow raven and took off for the heart of the city.

.

At Robin's urging, Bumblebee ushered Cheshire into the main room to see the damaged Wayne Co building sign. The two stopped near the doorway, well away from the rest of the Titans.

"Do you know anything about this?" the leader demanded immediately. Cheshire backed up a pace as all eyes in the room rested on her, but Bumblebee held her shoulders in as comforting a way as she could manage.

"It's… it's how we were supposed to tell anyone else we found Two-face. We'd maim a city sign. You guys kinda went crazy with that sign, though."

"So you vandalize a sign, then what?" questioned Argent from the couch.

"Then you wait for others to come and you take them to Two-face so they can escort him to Mistress." Cheshire breathed a little sigh of relief as all eyes shot to Robin.

"So whoever comes to answer the call is a direct link to this mistress," he connected the dots. Glancing at the nearest Titans to him, he pointed to the main door. "Get ready to take down an east coast crime ring. Titans, go!"

Everyone made a dash for the door, Beast Boy even forgetting his cereal. Bumblebee, still standing with Cheshire, gave an indignant bob of her head. "I KNOW y'all ain't leavin' me behind! …Hey!"

.

A large dark raven circled the smoke above the Wayne Co. building before dissipating, dropping two heavy droids onto the roof. They easily landed on their feet and Raven glided to the roof between them. With a wave of her hand, the smoke in their vicinity dispersed, and standing there coughing was Angel. Kyd Wykkyd stood next to her, waving a hand in front of his face in irritation.

"You again?" she choked. "Where's Cheshire? This has gone way too far."

"Cheshire can't come at the moment, but if you leave a message she'll get back to you as soon as possible," Raven mumbled, studying both of them. Angel finally recovered from the smoke and was about to retort, but Raven cut her off. "I know you're looking for someone on behalf of your mistress. I can get your mistress what she wants."

_Yeah, go Raven!_ giggled Happy. _Wait, does she know something we don't?_

_I think she's bluffing,_ Intelligent informed her.

Angel and Kyd Wykkyd exchanged glances. Angel shot an inquiring look in Raven's direction. "This is Cheshire's job, though. It's _her_ initiation. It's not like, 'hey, anybody who wants to jump in on this can!' I mean—" All of a sudden, a duct tape-width of shadow wrapped around Angel's mouth. Raven's two robots quickly seized Angel once they assessed that their owner was in the process of apprehending her.

"You won't make it far in this field." Her dark gaze leveled on Kyd Wykkyd. She didn't care to waste any time discovering whether he _couldn't_ or _wouldn't_ speak, so she opted for a mind link. Raven lunged for him, but before she could put her hands on him, Kyd summoned a black portal with a swish of his arm and hopped through. It collapsed just as Raven landed on the spot. His power was not identical with Raven's, but it was similar enough that she could sense him moving through his dark middle-world, headed for the other end of the portal. To her, it was like almost seeing a ghosting image moving. She sensed the next portal opening behind Angel split seconds before she actually saw the dark window growing. Raven dove for her prisoner as Kyd's hand shot from the portal to grab Angel's arm and yank her through, along with the two droids holding on to her. Raven just barely caught the ankle of one robot and was yanked through the portal as well.

Not a minute later, Starfire and Argent arrived on the scene, having flown there a little faster than all the boys in Cyborg's custom T-plane. Beast Boy smushed his face against his window.

"Where is everyone? Did we miss it? Did we beat 'em here?"

.

Kyd Wykkyd's dark portal opened in the middle of a park and five figures were spat out. Kyd dragged Angel to her feet and away from Raven and her two droids. The dark girl quickly scanned her surroundings to see a calm park with a metropolis beyond the distant tree line. For as little as Raven got out, even she recognized the New York City skyline.

"Seriously, this is just TOO WEIRD!" whined Angel. "That's it! I tried to help Cheshire out, but she's not meant for this team. And I'll tell mistress that today. I'll—" In one moment, Raven sent a shadow-covered park bench hurtling for Kyd Wykkyd as she reached for Angel. The boy was knocked into a large tree trunk and crumpled to the ground while Raven caught Angel's face between her fingertips. Angel was almost frozen in place.

"All I want you to do," Raven instructed in a tone she tried to keep as calm as possible, but her annoyance with the villain trainee made it difficult, "is to think of Mistress. Think of everything you know about Mistress."

.

Slade watched the afternoon sun from an eighteenth-story penthouse. The building stood undisturbed on the edge of the city, not having to compete with the gigantic towers in the central parts. It just stood at its unassuming height with a decent view of a nearby park.

A white haired man with dry cleaning entered from the elevator and gave a pert, "Ah, there you are, sir!" before nearing Slade. He stopped next to Slade and unzipped the covered dry cleaning hangar to expose the dark uniform underneath. "They took out all the stains and mended that fraying patch from your armor, but you can't quite get good service at only $70 anymore, so I'll have to take a needle to it. All your armor is nice and shined, stacked in your closet, and your mask is on the table next to your bed." He zipped the dry cleaning bag closed. "I'll go hang this in the closet and get to it after dinner. I've had the roast in the oven for nearly two hours and a half now, sir, it should be ready momentarily."

A grin cracked on Slade's face and he traced a finger and thumb along his trim goatee. "You're too good to me, Wintergreen."

The man was already bustling for Slade's room to hang up the suit, but managed to throw over his shoulder, "It's because you've been gone so long, sir. Had to make up for lost time!"

.

**a.n.** Woo! I had an epic burst of AWESOME MUSE IS AWESOME and knocked out the majority of this chapter in like an hour and a half. I have no idea how mind links work, I'll go off and research this tomorrow… y'know, AFTER I already write about it, but whatever. HOPE YOU ENJOY. I do enjoy me some maskless Slade. And all of Raven's Emoticlones. Also, I feel like I don't explain things well, like Raven following Kyd Wykkyd while he's in between portals.


	9. On the hunt

**Chapter 8**

Raven concentrated as memories flashed through Angel's mind: alleyways, warehouses, other villain-trainees, mall shopping. She tried to trace through Angel's memory the route leading to Mistress' hideout and received fleeting images of many similar streets. They seemed familiar because Angel recognized them, but Raven had no clue where they were all located. She tried to freeze an image to look around the surroundings for a location marker, but she couldn't quite grasp the snapshots before they slipped through her fingertips. The act of controlling Angel's thoughts strained her concentration too hard, so instead Raven let them flow. She was led to an old-style movie theatre with red seats and red draw-back curtains framing the screen. The silhouette of a woman stood on the stage in front of the screen. Raven could barely make out her brunette hair by the dim light of the room before the image was interrupted by a cackle from Rage. Raven immediately pulled back from Angel and would have fallen to the ground had not her robots reached out to catch her. Angel sunk to her knees in a daze.

"Get me away," Raven gasped to them.

.

After dinner, just like he promised, Wintergreen sat in his oversized armchair with Slade's suit and a needle to sew on a patch the right way. Slade himself stood in front of the hall closet donning a leather jacket a smidge too big for him.

"Mind if I borrow this? I feel like going out tonight," he called as he admired his profile in the hall mirror.

"On a mission, I take it?" Wintergreen mused. He never stopped surveying the needlework through his thin glasses. "Breaks my heart you didn't come all this way just to visit an old friend."

"It's not like you showed up on _my_ doorstep in all those years, Wintergreen."

The man in the chair only chuckled in reply. Slade slipped on dark glasses and unfolded a walking stick for the blind. "Don't wait up." Once he stepped into the elevator, he saw between the closing doors Wintergreen wave to him from across the room, still inspecting the patchwork. Slade leaned against the fancy handrails and combed a hand through his short hair. The elevator gave a small ring with each floor he passed.

All evening, Slade couldn't shake the all-too-familiar feeling he was being watched; that there was always _something_ nearby. Even now in a small elevator, he felt something similar to eyes on his back. There was the prickling starting at the back of his neck and running down his spine, but no paranoid feeling in his gut. Instead, there was a feeling that he was just _close_ to something. The man shivered just to shake off the tingling feeling from his back. Finally the elevator reached the ground floor and Slade stepped out, sweeping the walking stick in front of him.

.

Back on the west coast, it was only late afternoon. Bumblebee camped out on the large couch in the main room with the deluxe pizza that was delivered. She never asked how the pizza boy crossed the bay; she just gave him a generous tip. Bee was once again alone with Cheshire in the Tower. The rest of the Titans had returned a couple hours earlier, got the vaguest directions from Cheshire, and took off for New York. Even if the "guest" hadn't been there, someone would have had to remain behind in case X or others from his group returned.

Cheshire sat on the other side of the pizza box on the couch, devouring the slice in her hand while holding another slice in waiting in the other. She was only allowed to join Bee in dinner and movie-watching on the condition that she wouldn't tell the other Titans Bumblebee was watching chick flicks all night.

"Dang, girl, didn't they feed you when you were prisoner?" Bee asked, slowly dragging her half of the pizza closer to her edge of the box.

"Barely," mumbled Cheshire through a full mouth. She finally paused her pizza carnage to ask, "Aren't I a prisoner here, too?"

Bee laughed. "Honey, with your 'friends' runnin' around out there under your mistress' orders and your captors who-knows-where, d'you really _wanna_ go back out there?" Cheshire visibly shivered.

"Good point."

.

Raven's robots had carried her to a secluded park bench where she folded into her normal meditative pose and closed her eyes. The two robots stood guard on either side of the bench, but at this time at night the park was deserted. Raven slowly muttered her chant, focusing all her attention on keeping Rage imprisoned in a far corner of her mind. Looking into Angel's head took more power than Raven expected, and Rage had taken advantage of Raven's lapse in judgment and weaker mental barrier to attempt escape. Raven caught it in time. This time. As she added more fortified layers to Rage's prison, Raven couldn't help but wonder why the red manifestation was one again such a problem.

_Prolly has something to do with that useless meditation Slade taught you, _ quipped the orange one. She was the snarky one of the bunch, and while most people would call her Rude, the other emotions affectionately called her "Attitude."

_He taught me a way of meditating to get things under control and make me stronger in the end,_ defended Raven.

_A lean, mean, fighting machine!_ Brave interjected.

_Awesome,_ groaned Attitude. _So he gives you something without even knowing if it's compatible. You _do_ realize that the meditation he taught you is distancing all of us, right? _

On the outside, Raven's expression twisted into incredulity. _What?_

_Your old meditation, _Intelligent began, _is what bonded us all, even Rage. We were all unique, but we were all _part_ of you. Now, we're growing less cohesive. We're all separate voices instead of different aspects of _your_ voice. _

_ And Rage is out to conquer us all,_ Attitude concluded.

_For the past day or two I've been doing my old meditation, _Raven again countered.

_Great, I feel so much better,_ replied Attitude.

_It's kind of like working out: _explained Intelligent,_ after you do it for awhile, you get results. Nothing happens right away. Until you get back into the habit of meditating like this for _awhile_, we're stuck like this._

_Work out? Woo!_ Brave again popped into the conversation. _WHO WANTS TO WORK OUT?_

_ It's too late at night to be that motivated,_ came Sloth's disgusted reply.

Once Raven was satisfied with the level of security keeping Rage imprisoned, she slipped back into reality and opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was a stable-looking branch within arm's reach and was sorely tempted to try chin-ups. Much to Brave's disappointment, Raven agreed that it was too late at night and pushed that thought to the back of her mind. Her two robots neared her as she stood up and rubbed her forehead.

"We need to find a place to stay for the night. Scan for Slade's droids; I know he took some of them with him. And—" Her voice ebbed as a familiar sensation flashed through her head. It felt exactly like when she opened her mind to Slade when he communicated with her. Raven had never been able to probe his mind, only provide the means of communication for him to talk to her when he wanted. The feeling lasted only a second before fading. Slade had to be close; in her tired state, there was no way Raven could communicate with even a fellow telepath over a long distance.

The robots pivoted in a circle, thoroughly scanning for their brethren, but returned to their starting position without any luck.

"Okay guys, we'll try again in the morning." Raven felt too drained to fly herself and both droids anywhere, so she started walking. By the time the three made it out of the trees and into the park, the sky was dark and the moon wasn't up yet.

When Raven finally reached the outskirts of the city, it was past midnight and her leotard and cloak did not stand out at all compared to what some drunk clubbers were wearing en route to a new bar. Raven sent her two robots up to follow her from the building rooftops.

It seemed like a good idea to Raven to not keep such an obvious outfit that the Mistress' underlings could find once Angel informed them of a blue-cloaked attacker. Raven phased into the first clothing shop she came across. Without even bothering with matching clothes or checking sizes, she started pulling clothing from the wall and free-standing racks. As she passed one of the front windows, she happened to glance out and see a blind man walking by on the opposite sidewalk with women on both arms. Raven just rolled her eyes at the conundrum that was New York City and grabbed a few more items before floating up through the roof.

Luckily for Raven, a sketchy motel was three rooftops over, and she easily phased herself and the two robots through the roof into a vacant room. All the clothes piled nicely in a heap on one bed while the dark girl claimed the second one. Just Raven sitting on the bed displaced a fine layer of dust.

"Awesome," she sighed.

.

The next morning Cheshire took advantage of a soft bed, a warm breeze wafting through an open window, and no responsibilities to sleep in. Bumblebee took advantage of this release from babysitting duties to fly to an apartment complex in a familiar corner of Jump City. She knocked on the sliding glass door of a balcony several stories up. Half a minute later when no one answered, Bee knocked louder. A glaring Jinx shoved the curtains aside and unlocked the door.

"You were just here a couple days ago," she protested as Bee slid the door open and invited herself in. "This isn't fair." The pink haired girl looked like she had just woken up because her hair was in two erratic braids, and she wore baggy shorts and an oversized shirt with kittens on it. Instead of heading to the couch area like before, Jinx stomped over to her little kitchen and started making coffee.

"I just got a couple questions today, hon, you can deal," Bumblebee said with her characteristic bob of her head. She followed Jinx into the kitchen and leaned on the doorframe, a hand on her hip.

"Let's get it over with," groaned Jinx, rolling her eyes. The pink haired girl looked especially grumpy with a glower cemented in place and her arms folded across her chest.

"If this 'Mistress' leader is on the east coast, why are her underlings here?"

Jinx shrugged so fast it looked like she hadn't even considered the question. "I dunno. Why do the Titans run missions all over the world? I guess she sends kids where she needs stuff."

"What's Mammoth in town for? We _know_ he's part of it, don't even try to cover for 'im."

Jinx was considerably slower in her answer. "He's on the hunt for some girl, I heard."

"Well if Cheshire was after Slade, is Mammoth after Raven?" Bumblebee demanded quickly, staring straight at Jinx. The pink haired girl started.

"If the east coast gang is really tracking down Slade of all people, I'm steering clear of all that. I only _heard_ Mammoth was on this super-secret mission from somebody outside all of this. I don't have details _at all_."

Bumblebee considered all this for a minute, tapping her fingernails against the opposite doorframe as if it helped the cognitive process. Finally she looked back to Jinx. "Couldja get details from Mammoth? Y'all are still friends, right?"

Jinx almost didn't notice the coffee pot boiling as she stared at Bee open-mouthed. "I am NOT getting caught up in the middle of this!" She switched off the coffee maker just in time and began preparing a cup.

"Hey, hey. Hay. I'm not askin' you to jump right in and start playing bounty hunter with him. I'm saying help a girl out." There was no answer as Jinx stirred sugar into her coffee. Bee gave a shrug. "I just figured I'd ask. S'bound to be more exciting than living like a human day in, day out."

"I have a part-time job, thank you very much."

Bumblebee waved the comment away before heading back for the balcony. "I'll see you around, girl. If you're interested, we saw Mammoth at the warehouse docks. Kyd Wykkyd and a friend were there, too, at a different time. They scrubbed the place 'fore we could crash their party, though. Just… if you wanted to know."

.

Raven looked positively normal in Bermuda shorts, a hoodie, and ankle boots. The entire ensemble was comprised of dark colors, and it helped her blend in with everyone else wearing similar dark colors walking the sidewalks going about their day. She had been walking about for an hour now, map in pocket. Her first mission of the day was to stop at an internet café and look up theaters in the area. It only came back with hundreds of addresses, so all Raven could do was print out each address and start hunting. So far she crossed out four possibilities, because none of the surrounding streets leading to the theatres looked like what Raven had seen in Angel's head.

Raven turned a corner and saw the fifth theatre on the list on the opposite side of the street. With a disappointed huff, she crossed it off the list.

"This is impossible."

_Chin up!_ beamed Happy. _At least it's a great day to be out!_ On the heels of her exclamation came an ominous crack of thunder.

_Sucks to be you,_ Attitude said. Not two seconds later a light pitter-patter of rain started, steadily growing heavier. Raven pulled her hood up and glared when almost everyone else on the street produced umbrellas. She hurried for the first shelter on her sidewalk: an overhang in front of a prestigious hotel. The doorman standing against the building eyed her discriminatorily but said nothing.

Raven's agitation was quickly mounting at the whole situation. She was having no luck finding this Mistress' theater hideout, she didn't feel like getting soaked by the rain, she was sure if Slade were here, he'd have a much better plan at tracking everything down, and despite her being sure he was somewhere in the city, she had no idea of how to find him, either. Raven hated the feeling of being alone, especially amidst so many people. She easily passed over a hundred people just that morning, yet she was positively alone.

_You still have us!_ Friendly chipped in. Raven could have facepalmed. She wished she had someone else there besides… herself. The dark girl didn't care who she let in, she just opened her mind for the chance to hear _someone_ besides her emotions. The crowd on the sidewalks was much thinner now that a steady rain fell, and she heard each of them as they passed. The closer they were to her, the louder they got. The New York City dwellers on the whole had superficial, stereotypical thoughts about fashion, exercise, time crunches, and coffee. All of a sudden, though, one voice resounded a little stronger than the rest, and much more familiar than Raven ever expected.

_"…this is it. Finally… found it…"_ Other voices intermingled with this one, drowning out half of it, and the more Raven tried to concentrate on it, the more she only heard the crowd immediately around her. The dark girl shut them all out and instead began scanning the streets looking for a specific man. But Slade wasn't there. Raven even ventured out from under the hotel overhang into the rain to start looking for a man of Slade's stature.

After five minutes of this, Raven's agitation went through the roof. All her emotions, even Sloth and especially Timidity, urged her to calm down. She stole into the next alley she came across that boasted enough cover to fly to the rooftop. From there she called for her robots and waited. Before she had left her motel room that morning, Raven took a small transceiver from one droid, and the frequency it emitted was one unique to her robots. It acted as a homing beacon, or in this case, a distress call.

Not five minutes later, Raven's two robots joined her in the rain under her shadow umbrella.

"We have a better vantage point here, guys. Try calling Slade's droids again."

.

Wintergreen was just getting the cups set out in preparation for afternoon tea when three robots burst out of the furthest room down the hall, sprinted for the door to the balcony, and rocketed from the balcony into the sky with the boosters in their feet.

.

Bumblebee flew back to the tower in high spirits. After meeting with Jinx, she had a good feeling about the rest of the day. However, right as she reached the edge of the bay, she stopped short and hovered in place. There was something on top of the tower. Bee shrunk to her smallest size and flew on cautiously. It took much longer this way, but it gave the Titan more time to study this intruder. Bee recognized the cape and the black costume and white skull mask before she had even made it halfway across the bay and flew faster toward her target.

X just stood atop Titans Tower like he owned it, hands on his hips and surveying everything. He was too busy watching the landscape to notice the tiny Bee circle around behind him and head straight for him. She popped back to human-size before tackling him right off the tower and letting him fall toward the rocky island below. Bumblebee hovered at roof-level and started when he disappeared into thin air. Not even a second later he reappeared on top of the Tower.

"How'd you do that?" Bee cried after a double-take. X shrugged.

"Aliens." He pulled an x-shaped weapon from his belt and threw it just as quickly as she unholstered her B-stingers and fired. The following explosion knocked them both back. Two seconds later X shot through the clearing smoke and grabbed Bee around the waist, dragging her down with him. She shrunk to her bee size, but her assailant already had one of his sticky x weapons in hand and grabbed her entire body in his fist. They plummeted past several stories together until Bumblebee returned to her human size. Unfortunately, the sticky x grew with her and even at full size, Bee found her arms and wings still pinned with X's hand still stuck to her.

"Boy, I swear, if you get me killed, I'mma come back and HAUNT YOU SO HARD and—" They both hit the water. It took Bumblebee longer to surface but X chivalrously pulled her up with the hand still stuck to her.

"Not a bad day for a swim," he said with water still draining from his mask. He began swimming with one arm back toward the island.

"_What_ are you doing here? Y'know you're a dead man walkin'! Can't believe you're even _showing_ y'face around here after what _you_ did."

"That's what the mask's for, sweetie," X retorted, still treading water.

"I don't care what you're here for. You're _not_ getting into that tower and you're _not_ finding out what we're up to and you better pray you're _nowhere near me_ when I get free because I am going to—"

"Write me a love song?" finished X. "Buy me lunch? I like tacos. Sub sandwiches are a close second." Finally he reached shallow enough water that he could just walk the rest of the way onto the island, pulling Bee behind him. Once they were both on dry land, the thief whipped out a sharp x weapon to cut his hand free from the stickiness.

"Why are you helpin' out the people we're trying t'catch? And why would y'show up _here_ after we all know your true colors?" demanded Bumblebee while trying to free herself from the red bonds.

"You gotta remember, sugar wings, I'm a guy for hire. I hang with the people who pay more."

"Sounds like you helped out the Titans before without being pai—SUGAR WINGS?" At that she renewed her efforts to force her arms free, her face growing red. Whether that was an embarrassed red or an angry red, X couldn't tell.

He vented a chuckle. "So, you got a number I can get?" One of Bee's eyes twitched.

"Yeah. 9-1-1." Suddenly, from a story high up in the Tower rang a high-pitched scream. It was cut short not even a second later. Bumblebee stopped struggling and her glare laid full force into X.

"That better not've been Cheshire…"

"Oh, look at the time," the thief began, checking a non-existent watch. "I'll be back for that number, yeah?" And with that he leaned in and pressed his mask to her lips like a kiss before touching his belt and disappearing from sight.

"B-b-boy!" she sputtered, wide-eyed and redder than ever. "I don't even know where that mask's _been_!"

.

The agitation Raven had been feeling most of the early afternoon melted into apathy. While her robots stood motionless transmitting signals, Raven took the time to just listen to the rain and calm down now that she was far removed from the bustling streets of the New York City outskirts. The dark girl could feel Rage writhing and fighting against her imprisonment. Raven would have to meditate before too long to make sure her angriest emotion was kept confined.

Just then she noticed both her robots staring southwest like dogs on a trail. She followed their gaze and thought she saw three tiny dots, but they were so small she dismissed them as birds. However, they were approaching far faster than any bird she knew. Raven's breath caught when she could make out the shapes of three of Slade's robots. They landed in front of her on the roof and she felt like should could hug them.

Slade's robot's armor looked a bit thicker than before, and their Cyborg-blue circuits boasted fancier upgrades as well. Slade must have had the droids busy building and upgrading each other, because Raven doubted he would've taken the time to work on them himself.

"Take me to Slade."

.

Wintergreen stirred honey into his tea as he sat in his worn armchair. Slade had been out since earlier that morning and Wintergreen decided not to wait. Right as he reached for the TV remote, he heard three _thumps_ as the robots returned. Then two more _thumps_ that made him turn his head. There were many more droids on the balcony than he remembered had rushed through his kitchen not a half hour ago. Then he saw a delicate figure land amongst them. Wintergreen set his tea aside and stood up.

.

Raven was slightly confused. The building the robots led her to was ordinary. It was caught between the city and suburbia, which the girl did not think was a good location at all for a hideout. The lead robot opened the sliding glass door and entered, followed by the rest of Slade's robots. Raven peered inside with an expression hardened by skepticism. This place was furnished. There were no large computers, no tables full of blueprints, no ambiance of ulterior motive. It was a normal apartment. Then she noticed the white-haired man. He wore glasses and casual sweater and tie that suggested he grew up in an era of good manners and formal attire. Raven was not good with strangers, but there was something in his air that made her feel like she did not have to be on guard around him.

"May I help you, miss?" he asked in his British accent. He seemed like a very nice, very normal older man. Raven arched a brow, still leaning in from the balcony.

"Aren't you… a little disturbed that I just showed up at your window on the top of the building?"

"I've seen stranger," the man said with a slight smile. "Forgive me, my name is William Wintergreen. And who might you be?"

"Raven," she replied. "Just Raven." For some reason she felt like she could trust this stranger. "Does Slade stay here?"

"He tells me he does, but since he arrived, he's been out more than he's been in. I believe he should be back soon. Won't you come in?"

..

**a.n.** Awesome muse is still here. ;D Years ago when I started this, I was thinking maybe ArgentX. Now all of a sudden BeeX happened and I don't know where that came from. Also: Brave is still my favorite, but Attitude is a close second. Lastly, if X's remark about "Aliens," didn't make sense, google "Aliens memebase."


	10. Face to face

**Chapter 9**

The Titans and honorary Titans had arrived in New York the night before, after a long 2-hour trip in the T-ship starting from the opposite end of the country. It was only long to the Titans because Beast Boy complained the whole time of how badly he had to pee. Since that morning they had all been busy trying to look for leads despite the weather.

Robin sat in the cockpit of the T-ship fiddling with the various Cyborg-personalized equipment. The boy wonder tried to use the limited ship systems as if it were the Titans mainframe back in the tower to search for any news on Mistress or her organization. The T-ship, like all of Cyborg's creations, was state-of-the-art. However, it was built for international and interplanetary flight, not tracking criminals through computers.

Cyborg stood safe from the rain under the T-ship fiddling with exposed circuits and wires along the belly of the ship. He was rerouting power sources and trying to boost the T-ship's computer's reach while installing Wi-Fi so Robin could track Mistress across the internet, too. Beast Boy was excited for the prospect of Youtube.

Speedy and Beast Boy had half-directions from Cheshire to Mistress' team conference room. However, the directions she gave and the roads that existed were two separate matters. The boys divided their time between asking directions and mapping it online. By late afternoon they were still searching, but they had successfully discovered a mall, a giant arcade, a pet shop, and a pizzeria with the most mouth-watering flavors imaginable. When asked what was taking so long, they replied that they had to wait out the rain at all these various locations.

The girls were pulling surveillance, flying in the vicinity of where Cheshire recalled Mistress' underlings traveling to try to spot anyone familiar. Neither minded flying in the light afternoon rain. So far their only known targets were Mammoth, Kyd Wykkyd, and Angel, but they assumed anyone they had crossed paths with during the battle with the Brotherhood could be a possibility.

Currently the two girls were taking a break from flying by resting on the top of a tall department store not too far away from the Hudson River. They scanned the roadways below just as vigilantly as before.

"…And that is how I came to call this planet home," Starfire finished with equal enthusiasm as when she started her tale two hours earlier. Strangely, it had been in answer to Argent's question if Starfire had visited New York City before.

"That's… insightful," Argent said flatly when she noticed the alien was quiet for once. The silver-skinned girl welcomed the foreign silence that followed until it grew almost stifling within the short span of ten minutes.

"So…" she started, hoping she could find a subject that wouldn't send Starfire down another tangent for hours, "your team's been together for a few years now, right? Doesn't it get crazy in the tower?"

"Sometimes the atmosphere becomes confrontational when the boys start seeing the red, but we have become a family over time," Starfire answered sweetly and – to Argent's relief – succinctly.

"You see all the boys kinda like your brothers then?" tested Argent carefully. She broke her gaze away from the darkening streets to study her friend's face.

"Yes, especially when they act so protective of me, despite their complete lack of strength compared to a Tamaranian's," smiled the alien with a laugh. The Titan's antics always made her giggle cheerfully.

"So Robin's not like… anyone special to you or anything, yeh?" the silver-skinned girl continued hopefully. Starfire's eyes immediately narrowed, but her expression melted into a quizzical one. The faintest blush deepened her orange cheeks.

"I—" Starfire's reply was interrupted by Robin's voice over the communicators.

"Titans! Something's attacking a barge in the bay. I'm sending the coordinates now. I don't know if this is related to Mistress or not, but it's worth a look. Robin out."

Argent and Starfire checked the directions before clipping the communicators back onto their belts and taking to the sky, their previous discussion completely forgotten.

.

The sun was practically set and the rain long gone by the time that the penthouse elevator reached the top floor and Slade stepped out. Today he had masqueraded as a dog walker, and climbing seventeen stories was just enough time to fold all the leashes neatly into one giant tangle. Slade tossed the mess into the coat closet as Wintergreen approached.

"I hope you had dinner out, because there's none left."

Slade picked a hanger from the closet and draped his jacket over it, saying, "I'm sorry I missed your excellent cooking, Wintergreen, but come now! Don't be like that; I know you cook for two when I'm around."

"This is true, but tonight I had an unexpected guest. She was looking for you, in fact. A young thing named Raven."

Slade missed the coat rack completely and nearly dropped his hanger. His wide-eyed gaze flashed from Wintergreen to all the closed doors on the wall.

"The poor girl said she had a long day and just wanted to rest a bit. She's been taking a nap on the couch for almost two hours," Wintergreen said, taking the jacket from Slade and hanging it properly. He chuckled, "And here I thought you had grown out of the stage of bringing girls home."

Slade pushed past his friend with an expression devoid of anything even resembling humor. He made absolutely no sound as he stole toward the sitting area. A large doorway took up half a wall and from the other side of the open penthouse Wintergreen's favorite chair and side table could easily be seen. The couch, however, sat with its back against the dividing wall.

Slade peeked half his face into the black room. Even the large sliding glass door to the balcony was hardly any help with a dark sky overlooking an unlit park. Quickly, though, his eyes adjusted and the strange lump on the couch sharpened into a curled up figure covered in a blanket.

Slade found Wintergreen ten steps away in the kitchen area, making a shopping list by the light from above the sink.

"Why did you keep her here? Why didn't you warn me _ahead of time_?" he hissed, not two inches away from Wintergreen's ear.

The old man turned and studied Slade across his thin glasses before replying not as quietly, "You should have seen it when that girl landed outside the window. Seen how she looked. _Felt_ her." Slade reeled back and almost looked like he would punch his friend. Wintergreen help up a staying hand. "I mean I thought I felt what _she_ was feeling. I was empathizing with her."

"Probably a new trick she's discovered," Slade growled mostly to himself, "gets people to feel the emotions she shouldn't even be feeling." He focused his scowl back on Wintergreen. "Still, she's not a lost kitten—you didn't have to give her a home!"

"She's gone through great lengths to find you. Can you really say anyone else you know would do the same?" Wintergreen capped his pen and folded the list in one neat crease.

"You would, old friend," Slade finally said in a voice slightly louder than a whisper.

"No, not really," he said with a smile. "Remember, when you left for the west coast all those years ago, I stayed here. _You_ crossed the country and found _me_." He gave Slade's shoulder a pat before heading toward the middle closed door on the opposite wall.

"Don't flatter yourself, Wintergreen," he grunted with a sneer. "I came here on a mission. I found you again because it's convenient."

All he got in reply was a chuckle and a "breaks my heart," before his door shut.

Slade used more force than was necessary shutting off the kitchen sink light. After an annoyed huff he crept into his own room and locked the door.

That feeling was back, Slade noticed now that he was alone with his thoughts. The tingling feeling down his spine that felt like eyes on his back. That warning sign which saved his life countless times as a soldier all those years ago. It was stronger now that Raven was so close. Slade couldn't fathom how it happened, but he felt like they were almost mentally linked. He never let _anyone_ in his head.

.

The six Titans met up on a sidewalk skirting the bay. Even in the darkness of the early night, docked ships were still being loaded, unloaded, docking, setting sail.

"This city really _doesn't_ sleep," commented Cyborg. Not too far in the distance an oceangoing barge sent up a flare. A second later an explosion lit up the deck of the troubled ship.

"All right," piped up Beast Boy. "We haven't gotten to save the day in like… ever!"

"Titans," Robin called with an enthusiasm vacant from his voice for months, "go!" Starfire immediately reached for Cyborg to carry him toward the barge. It was automatic anymore to pair them together when Cyborg needed a lift anywhere. Beast Boy morphed into his trademark pterodactyl and Robin jumped on his shoulders, leaving Argent to carry Speedy across the water on a disk of plasma energy.

On the flight out to sea, Robin's communicator beeped. It was a wonder Robin heard it at all over the flap of Beast Boy's large wings and the perpetual sloshing of the waves below. He tore it from his belt.

"Robin here."

_"Hay, it's Bee. We got a li'l problem o'er here. Cheshire's gone… X had a hand in it."_

Robin's fist tightened around the device. "Search for leads. If you absolutely can't find anything, join us over here. Robin out."

.

Bee terminated the link from the living room computer in the tower before leaning on the console, head bent. "I shouldn'ta left her alone," she grumbled.

"It's okay. It's not like you knew about this," Aqualad said from the couch. In a moment of perfect timing, Aqualad had arrived from his mission as Bumblebee was still trying to escape from the sticky x-weapon straight jacket. Aqualad easily freed her with the assistance of a passing swordfish. Bee filled her teammate in on the whole situation as she flew upstairs to Cheshire's room, only to find it empty with the curtains fluttering in the open window.

Bumblebee joined Aqualad on the couch, sprawled out nearly as much as him. "We don't actually have cameras in any of the rooms, so I got no way of findin' out how she disappeared or who took her. But we can't leave yet. My girl Jinx needs time to do some reconnaissance for me."

"Do you really think she'll do it?" Aqualad asked with a tilt of his head. "You made it sound like she didn't actually agree to it."

"I think she will. In the meantime, we gotta be keepin' eyes on their old hideout."

.

Starfire and Cyborg reached the ocean barge seconds before the rest, landing on top of the first storage crates they came across. They had a decent enough view of the deck to see most of the crewmates running chaotically. Those running with a purpose were fleeing from two figures breaking into one large crate on the starboard side. These two figures were females, one blond, one black-haired. A few sailors assembled in a bunch near the port railing.

The other four Titans arrived then and Robin jumped onto the deck to slip and slide his way to the railing.

"We saw your flare! What's going on?" he asked the gaggle of sailors.

"We're under attack!" one with a flashlight cried. "We done called the Coast Guard and—" he stole a glance at Robin, "who th'heck're you?" The rest of the team joined him.

"We're the Teen Titans. We're here to help," Robin said.

"Well I don't care if you're Santa Claus at Mardi Gras, if you're gunna help, stop those thieves!"

All six faced the two women who were busy digging boxes out of the steel crate. Suddenly, the blond started tossing the boxes overboard. Speedy and Beast Boy, closest to the starboard side, rushed to the rail and squinted into the dark waters far below.

"I'll cover you," Speedy said, grabbing an arrow from his quiver. Without a word Beast Boy jumped overboard and hit the water as a bottlenose dolphin. Seconds later, a green salmon flopped back on the deck and morphed back into Beast Boy. Before Speedy could say anything, Beast Boy cried, "Guys! There's a mermaid down there!"

.

Raven woke to find the sitting room dark and a blanket up to her shoulders. All she remembered was having tea and a casserole dinner before the excursion of the day caught up with her and Wintergreen generously giving her the opportunity to nap. This was back at five or six that evening.

Raven threw off the blanket, a guilty expression cemented on her face, before hurrying into the open kitchen area. No one was around, but she could sense two bodies in the far rooms. One in particular made her breath catch. Before Raven even realized she was walking, she found herself standing directly in front of the nearest door, hands flat against it. The dark girl closed her eyes and reached out in the same way she had for months when Slade communicated with her on missions. This time, however, no response came. She could sense an overactive mind uncomforted by sleep, but she couldn't tell exactly _what_ he was thinking. Even now in the dead of night his impenetrable wall was up. Raven let her forehead rest on the door.

_You know,_ started Brave, _this little bit of wood isn't gonna stop you. You can roundhouse kick right through it._

_There's an entrance of champions,_ said Attitude.

_Come on, ladies. We can't just barge in there. Just like we wouldn't want him barging into our room,_ Timidity added.

Friendly considered this. _Well…_ Timidity scoffed in response.

_If he wanted to talk to us,_ Intelligent started, _he wouldn't be behind a locked door._

_He could just be locking it because he wants us to come in!_ argued Happy.

Raven shook her head. _Only women think like that._ She quickly strained her ears when she thought she heard something shift inside.

_Well, y'should prolly think of some course of action,_ advised Attitude, _because it'll look weird if he finds you creeping here talking to yourself._ All the other voices agreed Attitude had a point.

Raven backed up a pace when the sounds of movement continued, a gasp catching in her constricted chest; footsteps were headed for the door.

_Yes,_ purred the malicious voice from its prison inside Raven's mind, _stand here and demand to know why he's neglected us. Why he left without a word about his whereabouts. Why he decided to leave_ _us after all those months training you to be his apprentice. Apparently he doesn't think _that_ highly of you still. _Raven's eyes narrowed at Rage's inclusion. The other emotions told Raven not to listen to her. The dark girl pulled back into the blackest corner of the kitchen and watched as a man in dark civilian clothes and white hair exited Slade's room. The shadows obscured his face and Raven couldn't decipher much more than the style of his hair. The man crossed the floor in Slade's familiar gait to the bathroom.

Curiosity burned through Raven and all her emotions. Rage took this opportunity to pipe up again: _Oh, so he takes off the mask when he's not around you. Clearly he trusts Winterfresh a little bit more than you._ An argument instantly broke out between half of Raven's emotions and Rage, mainly limited to threats and insults, but also with the occasional "Can't we all just get along?" and "Don't feed the trolls!" thrown in there, too.

Raven tried her hardest to block them all out as she crept forward under the cover of shadow and peered into the spacious bathroom. There was a tiny, dim light emanating from somewhere low along the wall, and it was just enough to show Slade's profile leaning over the sink, faucet running, and face already dripping wet. All of Raven's voices quieted then because, like her, they were all dying to know what he looked like. The girl did not even realize she was still moving until her body hit the doorframe. Barely half her head was leaning over to peer inside.

Slade splashed his face with another handful of water before turning off the faucet and planting his face into a towel. It took him awhile to return the towel to its wall hook. His apprentice was too busy watching him to realize he had started moving… towards her. By the time Slade noticed her dark figure in the deep shadows outside the door, his soldier reflexes took over in startled self-defense and a well-aimed fist flew right for her. Raven's eyes widened and whitened, and she barely had time enough to wave a hand and freeze Slade's arm up to his elbow completely in blackness. His fist was stuck mere inches from her eyes.

"Why are you here?" Slade growled.

"Why did you try to punch me?"

.

"Wait, so they're throwing stuff to a _mermaid_ down there?" Speedy repeated incredulously.

"Yeah! And the mermaid's putting it on a dinky boat down there, but yeah! A mermaid, guys!"

"Get down there and stop her!" Robin shouted before charging forward with the four remaining Titans and cornering the two females against the open crate. The one with short black hair turned around first. She wore dark clothes and a small leather jacket cut perfectly for her. The girl looked oddly familiar.

"Look, this has got nothing to do with you. Just let us be and we'll be out of your hair in two seconds," she explained with the faintest trace of a French accent. The girl with blond curls picked up another box and heaved it overboard, but Starfire flew up and caught it, hovering there over the rail with the box in her arms.

"A… security camera?" she questioned the looters as she read the box.

"Kinda ironic," Cyborg said, earning a snicker from Argent.

"We're the Teen Titans, and justice is kinda our thing," Robin told the thieves. "And since you're breaking the law, we're taking you in." The blond finally turned around and looked Robin up and down. She was in a blue-and-white dress that looked completely out of place in a robbery.

"Wow, you're like the do-gooder prince in fairy tales." Her gaze swept over all of them. "And you all look like you just stepped out of a fairy tale."

"Tease all y'want, you're both under arrest," Cyborg said as one arm morphed into a blue cannon. The girl with black hair smiled.

"Fine, if you arrest the right person." She seemed to shrink as colors popped onto her clothes and a second later, there was Robin standing where the girl had been. All the Titans looked from this new Robin to their team leader, currently standing next to Cyborg.

Meanwhile, Beast Boy patrolled through the dark water as a long, green squid. The next time the mermaid swam close to the barge to retrieve a box, two strong tentacles wrapped around her arms. The mermaid put up a fierce, startled struggle, but Beast Boy continued to reel her closer. He surfaced well within Speedy's range and pulled his detainee with him.

.

Raven released Slade's arm and let him shake the numbness out. Now that he was standing right in front of her she could see his short white hair and matching goatee, a dark eye patch and a hardened face. Even though his hair was shockingly white, his face bore scars instead of wrinkles and looked weathered with experience. He was also scowling like Raven did only under the influence of Rage.

"_Why_ are you _here_?" Slade repeated slowly, his one eye glaring fiercely. Raven had no cape to hide behind anymore while in her civilian clothes and seemed to bend slightly under his stare.

"I came to find you. I… I was…"

"I remember telling you to stay back in Jump City," he interrupted. Slade seemed to loom over her and appear even more menacing in the dark, open room. "I better not come back to a rotting corpse in the brig."

"She's gone! She was gone before I even came here," replied Raven with narrowing eyes. Rage sniggered from her prison.

"Fantastic, so she's roaming the streets back in the city so she can join back up with her team and informants," Slade huffed. "There's a reason I wanted to keep her locked up!"

"Because she was looking for you on her mistress' orders?" Raven shot back, finally standing at full height when Slade started at her revelation. "Yeah, I found that out on my own, but it would've been nice if _someone_ could've clued me in on that."

"This is _not_ your concern!" barked Slade. Their volume continued to escalate throughout the conversation, so now they were on the verge of shouting.

"Of course it's my concern! You're like the only person I interact with anymore."

Wintergreen shuffled out of his room in a robe and teddy bear slippers, yawning all the way to the kitchen area where he flipped on a light and started filling a pot with water.

"This is a personal matter, Raven, which is why I left you _on the other side of the country._ If it was anything else, I would have included you."

"Why does it matter if it's a personal matter or not? I can help you regardless! Stop trying to be all super secretive—we're _on the same side_ now!"

"Let her help," Wintergreen piped up. "You weren't exactly doing a fantastic job by yourself." He pulled three cups and saucers out of a cupboard and arranged them on the kitchen island.

"Stay out of this, Wintergreen!" shouted Slade. He turned back to his apprentice to find she was almost in his face. He slipped into his indoor voice. "Tomorrow I want you on your way back to Jump City."

"What? Why can't I help you?" Raven was nearly screaming, eyes severe. Half of her concentration was spent holding her feelings in check, which was quickly becoming a difficult task. "This Mistress seems dangerous and I've fought dangerous people before—"

"This isn't about strength or proving yourself or whatever you think it is. This is a personal matter! You need to accept that and _let it be._"

"If it's personal for you, that makes it personal to me!"

"We are _not a team!_" Slade barked. He looked almost ready to strangle someone. "I am _ordering_ you to return to Jump City tomorrow!"

"I know where Mistress is and was already tracking her down! _Why_ are you pushing me away?" Raven's emotions seethed. She was happy she finally found him, the one she had grown so used to over the months, and it felt like things could get back to normal in a strange city now. However, his borderline hostile reaction to meeting her again confused and flustered her. Raven was actually hurt that Slade did not have the same relieved reaction to their encounter that she did. Was she really the only one searching for some sort of stability?

The pot on the stove whistled with boiling water until Wintergreen turned the heat down and filled all three cups.

Slade straightened and half his anger seemed to vanish in one exhale. "What do you mean you know where she is?" Immediately the atmosphere seemed to lighten and Raven did not have to fight so hard to keep her powers under control.

"I don't have an address or anything, but I saw her… I saw her headquarters. And I was hunting it down all today," Raven added, puffing up slightly.

"See?" Wintergreen added as he pushed three steeping cups of tea across the island to corresponding chairs. "You don't even have that, Slade. Let the girl help." Slade cast a warning glance his way and Wintergreen only smiled, "Tea's ready."

Slade looked back at his apprentice, who stared defiantly back. "We'll talk about this in the morning, Raven."

.

The Titans looked from one Robin to the other, but couldn't spot any difference. With a sneer from the shapeshifter, she lunged for the real Robin and tackled him behind several stacked metal crates.

"Oh no y'don't!" shouted Cyborg as he ran after them. Cannon fire followed. The two girls turned their attention to the blond, who ran her fingers through her hair. She flashed a glance in Argent's direction.

"That's a fantastic dress!" the blond bubbled. "Where'd you get it?"

Argent ruffled her skirt. "Oh, it's just something I pieced together—" Suddenly a Robin came hurtling between them and ended up skidding along the deck almost to the rail where Starfire hovered. Cyborg stomped back out from around the crates.

"Yeah! That's what y'get!" The three Titans circled the blond and the twitching Robin until a second Cyborg, suit blackened by enemy fire, staggered into view from behind the crates.

"No! That's… the real Robin!" He stumbled to one knee. Just as the two Titan girls eyed the closer Cyborg in a new light, he fired his arm cannon at both of them. Argent was slammed into the rail and Starfire was knocked overboard, still clutching the camera box.

Speedy, providing cover for Beast Boy, directed the green Titan's attention to Starfire falling into the water, shouting, "Get her!"

The green squid immediately detoured in the direction of his teammate, his prisoner in tow. The mermaid, who had green skin much paler than Beast Boy's, stopped fighting his grasp. Instead, she shook her sandy blond hair out of her face and opened her mouth to sing in a foreign language. It was a sweetly haunting tune that sounded like she was singing underwater. Beast Boy completely stopped what he was doing as if lost in thought and his tentacles slipped away from his hostage. In a flash, she was off for the getaway boat. Speedy would have had the perfect shot if he hadn't similarly been in a daze.

Whatever time it was that the Titans recovered from this spell, it was only the sailors, an approaching Coast Guard ship, and themselves in the vicinity of the barge; the three thieves and their boat were nowhere to be seen. A drenched Starfire flew back onto the deck, carrying Beast Boy from the water.

Robin clung to his aching gut as the others circled around. "I don't know what that was," he grunted, "but we're going to find out. Let's regroup at the T-ship and figure it out in the morning."

Beast Boy forced an excited laugh past his exhausted slump. "So do we have Youtube now?"

* * *

**a.n.** I don't know what to make of this chapter. I edited it the most out of all the chapters I've uploaded so far. What do you all think of it? Any thoughts on why Slade's hunting Mistress? Or who Mistress even is?


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